Spain's government said on Saturday that multiple European states are mobilizing air transport to remove citizens from the cruise ship MV Hondius, which is en route to Tenerife and has been the scene of a hantavirus outbreak.
Spain's interior minister, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, said Germany, France, Belgium, Ireland and the Netherlands will each send planes to evacuate their nationals. The European Union will add two more aircraft to repatriate remaining European citizens, he said.
Grande-Marlaska added that the United States and the United Kingdom have confirmed they are preparing planes and contingency plans to assist non-EU nationals whose countries cannot provide air transport.
The World Health Organization's Director-General, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, is scheduled to meet Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez in Madrid on Saturday afternoon. After that meeting he will travel to Tenerife together with Spain's interior and health ministers to coordinate the ship's arrival and the subsequent response activities.
Spanish authorities expect the MV Hondius to anchor near Tenerife between 0300 GMT and 0500 GMT. Local officials have emphasized a limited operational window for evacuation - between Sunday midday and Monday afternoon - because sea conditions are forecast to deteriorate and remain poor through the end of May.
The luxury vessel departed from the coast of Cape Verde on Wednesday after the World Health Organization and the European Union requested that the country manage the ship's onward movement following the detection of the hantavirus cases.
The WHO reported on Friday that eight people had become ill and three had died - identified as a Dutch couple and a German national. Of those eight, six are confirmed cases of hantavirus and two are suspected, the WHO said.
Hantavirus is primarily transmitted by rodents but is noted by health authorities to have rare instances of person-to-person transmission.
Spain's Health Minister Monica Garcia said all passengers and 17 crew members will be evacuated from the ship. Thirty additional crew members will remain aboard and continue on to the Netherlands. She added that luggage and the body of a deceased passenger will remain on the vessel and that the ship will undergo full disinfection upon arrival.
On disembarkation sequencing, Spanish citizens will leave the ship first. Health authorities will determine the order in which other nationalities disembark. Grande-Marlaska said that no passenger will be allowed to disembark until the aircraft arranged for their evacuation is ready to depart.
This unfolding operation involves international airlifts, public health coordination at national and EU levels, and timed maritime movements constrained by forecasted weather, with WHO officials directly engaged in on-site coordination.