A luxury cruise ship, stranded off the coast of Cape Verde since Sunday due to a deadly hantavirus outbreak, was scheduled to sail to Spain on Wednesday after three passengers—two critically ill—were evacuated.

The MV Hondius, with nearly 150 people on board, is expected to dock in Spain's Tenerife, in the Canary Islands, within three days, Spain's health minister said, adding that those still on board were not presenting any symptoms of the disease, News.Az reports, citing Reuters.

Once in Tenerife, if they are still healthy, all non-Spanish citizens will be repatriated to their countries, Monica Garcia told a press conference in Madrid.

Quarantine

The 14 ​Spanish passengers will be quarantined in a military hospital in Madrid, Garcia said. The duration of the quarantine will depend on when they potentially had contact with the virus, ​she said, adding that it has a 45-day incubation period.

Three people - a Dutch couple and a German national - have so far died in ⁠the outbreak.

A total of eight people - including a Swiss citizen who has returned home and is being treated in Zurich - are suspected to have contracted the virus, with three ​of them confirmed by laboratory testing, the World Health Organisation said.

South Africa confirmed that it had identified among the victims the Andean strain of the virus that can - in rare cases - spread among ​humans through very close contact.

"This is the only (hantavirus) strain that is known to cause human-to-human transmission, but such transmission is very rare and... only happens due to very close contact," South Africa's health ministry said.

Three evacuated

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a post on X that the three people evacuated from the ship on Wednesday were on their way to the Netherlands.

The Dutch Foreign Ministry said these people included a Dutch person, a German and ​a Briton and that they would be transported to specialised hospitals in Europe.

Two of those evacuated presented acute symptoms, the ship's operator Oceanwide Expeditions said. The third person was closely linked to the German ​passenger who died on the ship on May 2. The Dutch ministry said that person was possibly infected with the virus.

News.Az 

By Ulviyya Salmanli