WHO to oversee hantavirus-stricken cruise evacuation

已複製連結

Passengers on board the hantavirus-stricken cruise will be disembarking on Sunday under the supervision of the World Health Organization.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, along with Spain's health and interior ministers, head to Tenerife's Granadilla port on Saturday ahead of the arrival of the hantavirus-hit cruise ship.

Tedros is expected to be supervising the evacuation of the ship where more than remain 140 people on board since the first hantavirus case was detected May 2.

Authorities have said the passengers and crew members who will disembark will have no contact with the local population, and will only be taken off the ship once evacuation flights are ready to fly them to their destinations.

The World Health Organization, Spanish authorities and cruise company Oceanwide Expeditions have said that nobody on board the MV Hondius is currently showing symptoms of the virus. 

Three people have died since the outbreak, and five passengers who left the ship are infected with hantavirus, which can cause life-threatening illness.