The final two evacuation flights for passengers aboard a cruise ship struck by a deadly hantavirus outbreak and docked near the Spanish island of Tenerife were scheduled to depart on Monday afternoon, Spain’s Health Minister Monica García said on Sunday, News.Az reports, citing Anadolu.

García told reporters that 94 passengers had already been evacuated from the vessel.

An Australian repatriation flight is set to carry six passengers, while a Dutch flight will transport 18 people, including travelers from countries that did not organize their own evacuation operations, according to officials cited by local media.

The first group to disembark on Sunday included 14 Spanish nationals, who were flown by a military aircraft to Madrid and then transferred to a military hospital for quarantine and medical testing.

The evacuation operation took place amid controversy and objections from Canary Islands President Fernando Clavijo.

Spanish officials rejected concerns that infected rodents could reach the mainland from the ship, stating that the likelihood of an Andean rodent swimming to the Canary Islands was “zero.”

Hantavirus is a rare disease typically transmitted through contact with infected rodents or their droppings, although the strain involved in this outbreak can also spread between humans.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has classified the situation as a Level 3 emergency response, which is its lowest emergency activation level.

The outbreak, involving the Andes strain of hantavirus, has resulted in five confirmed cases, including three deaths, according to officials from the World Health Organization (WHO).

Scientists confirmed that the outbreak was caused by the rare Andes variant of hantavirus, the only known strain capable of human-to-human transmission, usually through close contact.

The WHO said that two passengers who later died had traveled through Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay before boarding the cruise ship.

CDC officials said all passengers will be monitored for approximately six weeks, reflecting the virus’s incubation period, while health authorities in several US states are also tracking travelers who had already left the ship before the outbreak was confirmed.

News.Az 

By Nijat Babayev