Updated May 10, 2026 at 9:50 AM CDT
The first plane carrying passengers from the hantavirus-hit cruise ship has flown from Spain's Canary Islands to the country's capital Madrid, where the passengers were moved a military hospital.
Early on Sunday morning, the cruise ship MV Hondius arrived in Tenerife, the largest island in the Spanish archipelago that lies off the coast of West Africa.
From Tenerife, passengers and some crew members will be evacuated throughout Sunday and Monday, with many taken to their home countries. Spain's nationals left first.
Authorities say that none of the more than 140 people on the ship have shown symptoms of the virus.
People getting on and off the ship in Tenerife were seen wearing protective gear during the evacuation process, according to The Associated Press. The passengers have been told to leave behind their luggage, and are allowed to take only a small bag containing essential items. The cruise ship will not dock, but small boats will ferry passengers to the island.
Some crew members, as well as the body of a passenger who died on board, will remain on the ship, which will sail on to Rotterdam in the Netherlands to be disinfected.
Risk to Americans "extremely low"
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Saturday said the agency had considerable experience with the Andes strain of the hantavirus, offering assurance to the American public that there was low risk of a widespread outbreak.
The remarks from CDC officials come as headlines about the virus — which broke out aboard a cruise ship last month and has so far led to three deaths — have sparked fears of a COVID-like pandemic.
Officials speaking to reporters on Saturday stressed that transmission of the virus from person to person was rare and the risk to the American public remains "extremely low."
World Health Organization Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus urged the residents of Tenerife not to panic.
"This is not another COVID-19," he said in a statement. "The current public health risk from #hantavirus remains low."
"At this moment, there are no symptomatic passengers on board," added Ghebreyesus, who is in Tenerife to oversee the transfer.
U.S. passengers will quarantine in Nebraska
Hantavirus is typically contracted when humans come into contact with rodent urine, saliva or feces.
The Andes strain of the virus, however — which is the one currently being monitored aboard the cruise ship — can, in rare instances, transmit person to person.
A Dutch couple and a German woman have died from the virus.
The Dutch couple is thought to have come into contact with hantavirus before boarding the ship, during a birdwatching excursion at an Argentine landfill site.
More than two dozen American passengers were aboard the ship. Seven have already returned to the United States, but 17 more remain onboard.
Officials said that the seven passengers who are back stateside have been monitored while at their homes and have at no point exhibited any symptoms related to the virus.
The remaining 17 will be brought to the National Quarantine Unit at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, where they will also be monitored.
The CDC officials stressed that the group's time at the unit would not constitute a quarantine, as has been previously reported by CNN.
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