A cruise ship hit by a deadly hantavirus outbreak will reach the Spanish island of Tenerife "within three days", with the evacuation of passengers to start from May 11, Spain said Wednesday.The fate of the MV Hondius has sparked international alarm after three people travelling on the ship died, though World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus insisted the outbreak was not comparable to the Covid pandemic.
One passenger, Ruhi Cenet, a 35-year-old Turkish travel vlogger, said what started out as an idyllic voyage turned chaotic when the ship's captain announced on April 12 that a passenger had died.
"He said it was due to natural causes," Cenet told AFP.
"They didn't even consider the possibility of having such a contagious disease," he added. "They didn't take the problem seriously enough."
The WHO said emergency crews evacuated three people -- two sick crew members and another person who had been in contact with one of the confirmed cases -- from the ship Wednesday, which later left its anchorage off Cape Verde and headed for Spain's Canary Islands.
