The World Health Organization’s director-general said the current hantavirus outbreak, which is so far linked to the deaths of three people, isn’t “another COVID-19.”
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus shared the message in an X post directed toward the residents of Tenerife, where a cruise ship that faced an outbreak of hantavirus will evacuate early Sunday morning. Some Tenerife residents have protested the ship’s scheduled arrival, concerned that it could cause another pandemic.
“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,” Ghebreyesus said 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.”
Ghebreyesus said the current public health risk from hantavirus remains low, and there are no symptomatic passengers aboard the ship — called the MV Honduis — at this time.
“Spain’s authorities have prepared a careful, step-by-step plan: passengers will be ferried ashore at the industrial port of Granadilla, far from residential areas, in sealed, guarded vehicles, through a completely cordoned-off corridor, and repatriated directly to their home countries,” Ghebreyesus said. “You will not encounter them. Your families will not encounter them.”
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The World Health Organization first received reports of passengers with severe respiratory illness aboard the cruise ship on May 2. As of May 8, a total of eight cases, including three deaths, have been reported. Health officials said the virus is the Andes strain, known to have limited human-to-human transmission.
The United States, which officially withdrew from the World Health Organization earlier this year, shared an update for Americans through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on May 8. At the moment, the risk to the American public and travelers “remains extremely low,” the agency said.
In his X post, Ghebreyesus thanked Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez of Spain for agreeing to receive the cruise ship.
“I intend to travel to Tenerife to observe this operation firsthand, to stand alongside the health workers, port staff, and officials who are making it happen, and to personally pay my respects to an island that has responded to a difficult situation with grace, solidarity, and compassion. Your humanity deserves to be witnessed, not just acknowledged from a distance,” he said.
Ghebreyesus added, “As I have said many times: viruses do not care about politics, and they do not respect borders. The best immunity any of us has is solidarity.”
