GRANADILLA DE ABONA, Spain: Occupants of a cruise ship struck by a deadly hantavirus outbreak that has sparked international alarm began arriving home from Spain´s Canary Islands on Sunday in a complex repatriation operation.
Three passengers from the MV Hondius -- a Dutch husband and wife and a German woman -- have died, while others have fallen sick with the rare disease, which usually spreads among rodents.
No vaccines or specific treatments exist for hantavirus, which is endemic in Argentina, where the ship departed in April.
But health officials have stressed that the risk for global public health is low and played down comparisons to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Spanish Health Minister Monica Garcia said the evacuation of most of the ship´s nearly 150 passengers and crew would continue until a final repatriation flight to Australia on Monday.
Passengers wearing blue medical suits began disembarking the Dutch-flagged vessel onto smaller boats to reach the port of Granadilla on Tenerife, AFP journalists saw. The evacuees then boarded a red Spanish army bus and travelled to Tenerife South airport in a convoy, with a protective board separating the driver from the passengers.
The evacuees changed into new protective equipment before boarding their repatriation flights, the first of which took 14 Spaniards to Madrid, where they will observe quarantine at a military hospital.
