The 140 passengers and crew on the MV Hondius will be ‘completely isolated’ and evacuated, say Spanish authorities.

A cruise ship hit by a hantavirus outbreak is heading for Tenerife in the Canary Islands to disembark 140 passengers and crew after weeks stranded at sea.

At least eight people fell ill on board the Dutch-flagged Hondius, which is due to reach the Spanish island off the west coast of Africa early on Sunday morning.

The head of Spain’s emergency services, Virginia Barcones, said passengers will be taken to a “completely isolated, cordoned-off area.”

World Health Organization (WHO) chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus will be on the island to help coordinate their evacuation, according to Spanish ministry sources cited by AFP.

Three people have died and five passengers who left the ship are known to be infected with hantavirus. Cruise operator, Oceanwide Expeditions, said on Friday that there were no others on board with symptoms.

The WHO considers the risk to the wider public to be low.

‘Not a new COVID’

“This is not a new COVID,” said WHO spokesman Christian Lindmeier. “The virus is not that contagious that it easily jumps from person to person.”

WHO chief Tedros has also attempted to allay fears in a letter posted on X and directed to Tenerife residents.

“I know you are worried. I know that when you hear the word ‘outbreak’ and watch a ship sail toward your shores, memories surface that none of us have fully put to rest,” Tedros wrote on Saturday.

“The pain of 2020 is still real, and I do not dismiss it for a single moment. But I need you to hear me clearly: this is not another COVID-19 … You will not encounter [the passengers]. Your families will not encounter them.”

At a media conference on Saturday afternoon, Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO’s head of pandemic preparedness, said the ship’s passengers would be transported in small boats to shore before being screened.

Those showing symptoms would be transferred to the Netherlands for treatment, while others would fly home, she said.

Kerkhove added that a patient earlier reported to be in intensive care in South Africa is “doing better”.

The WHO confirmed that one of its health officers, as well as officials from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control and the Netherlands, are already on the ship.

Hantavirus is usually spread by contaminated rodent droppings and is not easily transmitted between people. But the Andes virus detected in the cruise ship outbreak may be able to spread between people in rare cases. Symptoms usually show between one and eight weeks after exposure.

Health authorities on four continents were tracking down and monitoring more than two dozen passengers who left the ship before the outbreak was first detected on May 2. They were also scrambling to trace others who may have come into contact with them.

‘Cannot become Europe’s health laboratory’

Some people who live in the Canaries expressed concern that the passengers’ arrival would create a health risk, and measures to contain it were insufficient.

The Spanish anti-establishment group, Iustitia Europa, which rose to prominence by challenging COVID-era restrictions, called for the Hondius to be barred from reaching Spanish shores.

“The Canary Islands cannot become Europe’s health laboratory … We demand transparency, responsibility, and protection for Spaniards to avoid repeating the mistakes of the past,” the group posted on X.

Alicia Rodriguez, a bar owner on Tenerife, said the incoming vessel “has been the talk of the town” for days. “I think to a certain extent we have to be concerned, but hopefully they’ll try to handle things in the least dangerous way possible,” she told Al Jazeera.

Several Spanish passengers told The Associated Press news agency they worry they will be ostracised once on land. “We’re scared by all the news that’s coming out, by how people are going to receive us,” said one of the passengers, who declined to give their name.

“You see what’s out there and you realise you’re heading into the eye of a hurricane,” said another passenger, who also requested anonymity. “Many people forget that in here there are more than 140 passengers. In reality, there are 140 human beings.”

Once the ship reaches Tenerife, passengers will be evacuated in small boats to buses, only after their repatriation flights are ready to take them, Spanish officials said. They added that the passengers will be transported in isolated and guarded vehicles, with parts of the airport cordoned off.