The final two evacuation flights for passengers aboard a cruise ship struck by a deadly hantavirus outbreak docked near the Spanish island of Tenerife were scheduled to depart Monday afternoon, Spain’s Health Minister Monica Garcia said.
Garcia told reporters on Sunday that 94 passengers had already been evacuated from the vessel.
An Australian repatriation flight will carry six passengers, while a Dutch flight will take 18 people, including travellers from countries that did not arrange their own evacuation flights, officials said, according to local media.
The first to disembark on Sunday were 14 Spanish nationals who were flown by a military aircraft to Madrid and transferred to a military hospital for quarantine and testing.
The evacuation came amid controversy and objections from Canary Islands President Fernando Clavijo.
Spanish officials dismissed concerns that infected rodents could reach shore from the ship, saying the possibility of an Andean rodent swimming to the Canary coast was “zero”.
The hantavirus is a rare disease usually transmitted through infected rodents or their droppings, though the strain responsible for this outbreak can also spread between humans.
