Three evacuated from hantavirus cruise ship as Canary Islands rejects plans for it to dock there – Europe live | Spain

The director-general of the World Health Organisaion, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, has just offered a bit more detail about the medical evacuation of the three people hit by the virus, as he insisted “the overall public health risk remains low.”

In a post on X, he said the three people were “on their way to receive medical care in the Netherlands,” as part of the WHO’s mission with the ship’s operator and national authorities in the UK, Spain, the Netherlands, and Cabo Verde.

“WHO continues to work with the ship’s operators to closely monitor the health of passengers and crew, working with countries to support appropriate medical follow-up and evacuation where needed,” the WHO’s chief said.

“Monitoring and follow-up for passengers on board and for those who have already disembarked has been initiated in collaboration with the ship’s operators and national health authorities. WHO thanks all those involved. At this stage, the overall public health risk remains low.”

The Dutch foreign ministry has just confirmed the nationalities of the three people evacuated from the ship, as confirmed by WHO, and they Dutch, British, and German citizens, Reuters reported.

We are getting more news about the hantavirus-hit cruise ship, with the German newspaper Bild now reporting that a German woman will be evacuated from the ship and brought to the German city of Düsseldorf for treatment.

She is believed to be one of the three people mentioned by the WHO in their report, and a close relative of one of the people who died from the virus, the paper said.

Oh, that was much faster than expected: the World Health Organization has just confirmed that the three suspected hantavirus cases have been evacuated from the ship and are on their way to receive medical care in the Netherlands.

Back to the hantavirus-hit cruise ship, it looks like there is more support planned with two doctors specialised in infectious diseases heading to join the passengers, the ship’s operator said.

“Two infectious disease physicians, currently en route from the Netherlands, will embark m/v Hondius and remain with the vessel after its anticipated departure from Cape Verde,” said Oceanwide Expeditions in a statement.

These doctors would only board the ship following the successful transfer of three people, two of whom are suffering from “acute symptoms”, the operator added.

In other news, Hungary’s incoming prime minister Péter Magyar has confirmed he will meet with Italy’s prime minister Giorgia Meloni in Rome tomorrow.

Magyar is in Italy to attend a screening of a documentary on his Tisza party, “Spring wind”, which went viral before the final of the election campaign last month, at the Riviera international film festival in Sestri Levante.

His meeting with Meloni – who used to be close with the outgoing Hungarian prime minister, Viktor Orbán – comes just days before his formal inauguration on Saturday.

Curiously, Magyar will be in Italy at the same time as some other leaders, including US secretary of state Marco Rubio and Poland’s prime minister, Donald Tusk, who are both also expected to meet with Pope Leo and Giorgia Meloni.

The planned transfer of three passengers from the luxury cruise ship hit by a deadly Hantavirus is scheduled to take place on Wednesday morning, the ship operator Oceanwide Expeditions said.

“The planned transfer of three individuals from the vessel to specialized aircraft has not yet taken place. This is scheduled to occur this morning, Cape Verde local time,” the ship operator said in a statement quoted by Reuters.

“Once aboard the aircraft, these individuals, two of whom present acute symptoms, will be transferred to medical and screening facilities,” it added.

And we are getting some pictures of one of the ambulance boats involved in the operations near the MV Hondius cruise ship.

Separately, the World Health Organization is reporting that there is on-going evacuation of three people from the hantavirus-hit cruise ship, via AFP.

Three people – two crew members and one other person – thought to be infected with the virus were being taken off the MV Hondius, anchored off Cape Verde, the WHO said.

The ship has been at the centre of an international health scare since Saturday, when the UN’s health agency was informed that three passengers had died and the suspected cause was hantavirus – a rare disease usually spread from infected rodents typically through urine, droppings and saliva.

South Africa has identified the Andes strain of hantavirus, which spreads human-to-human, in two people who came off a cruise ship hit by an outbreak of the disease, the health minister’s presentation to parliament showed on Wednesday.

The ship, the MV Hondius, was preparing to travel from Cape Verde towards Europe, Reuters reported.

The presentation seen by Reuters said tests done by South Africa’s National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) revealed that the Andes strain was the cause of infection in a Dutch woman who died in Johannesburg, and a British man who is still in hospital. Both had become ill on the ship.

“This is the only strain that is known to cause human to human transmission, but such transmission is very rare and as said earlier, only happens due to very close contact,” it said.

Meanwhile, Poland’s defence minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz urged Nato countries to increase their defence spending as quickly as possible.

Speaking at a Defence24 Days conference in Warsaw, he said:

“Europe… is capable of developing its economic potential on an unimaginable scale, but it must say directly: this is the priority today. This is our greatest task today. There is no point in waiting until 2035 with five per cent. It must be achieved by 2030, because otherwise it may be too late.”

He particularly warned the countries in southern Europe that “the threat is not only related to the border with the Russian Federation or Belarus – the threat is everywhere and in cyberspace.”

Kosiniak-Kamysz said Europe needed to take more responsibility for its safety, “not to replace the US troops, because their role, strategic capabilities and nuclear deterrence is irreplacable, but to keep the US troops [here] and save the transatlantic alliance.”

Curiously, he also hinted at potential increase in US troops based in Poland, from current 10,000.

“Regardless of the decisions made today between the States and the Federal Republic of Germany, the presence of American troops and increasing this presence is our strategic goal. And we are ready for it, to receive further American soldiers. We have been preparing for this for a long time, not just today.”

He said Poland wants to have Europe’s largest army of 500,000 by 2030, including 200,000 professional soldiers.

Meanwhile, the Swiss government has just confirmed that one person infected with hantavirus – who was a passenger on the cruise ship – is currently being treated in Zurich.

They added that there is currently no danger to the Swiss population, Reuters reported.

In other news from Spain, the regional government of Canary Islands said it is opposed to allowing a luxury cruise ship that has been hit by the outbreak of the deadly hantavirusto dock on the archipelago, its leader, Fernando Clavijo, said.

“This decision is not based on any technical criteria, nor is there sufficient information to reassure the public or guarantee their safety,” Clavijo told radio station COPE, as reported by Reuters.

He added that he had requested an urgent meeting with prime minister Pedro Sánchez to discuss the issue. Clavijo leads a local coalition which includes the conservative People’s Party, the main national opposition to Sanchez’s Socialists.

Earlier today, Spanish state broadcaster TVE reported the cruise ship was set to dock at the Canary island of Tenerife, citing sources from the country’s health ministry. The ministry did not immediately respond to Reuters’ requests for comment.

Morning opening: Spain’s Sánchez v Trump

Jakub Krupa

Spain’s prime minister Pedro Sánchez has urged the European Commission to trigger its blocking statute against US sanctions on the international criminal court, which would effectively tell European companies to not comply with the measures.

In a post on X, Sánchez said:

“Spain does not look the other way. Sanctioning those who defend international justice puts the entire human rights system at risk.”

In February last year, Donald Trump has signed an executive order that authorises aggressive economic sanctions against the international criminal court (ICC), accusing the body of “illegitimate and baseless actions” targeting the US and Israel.

As Ashifa Kassam reported in March, to date, 11 of the court’s officials – including the chief prosecutor and eight judges – have been placed under sanctions, subjecting them to measures that include bans on travel to the US and fines and prison sentences for American companies who provide them services.

Ever since, campaigners called on the EU to move against the sanctions, but the bloc did not want to put at risk already fragile relations with the US administration.

Now, Spain’s Sánchez, an outspoken critic of Trump who has already repeatedly drawn his criticism, is the first one to formally request the EU to act.

He said:

“The EU cannot remain idle in the face of this persecution. That is why, today, we ask the Commission to activate the Blocking Statute, to protect the independence of the international criminal court and the United Nations, and their actions to end the genocide in Gaza.”

The EU’s blocking statute is intended to protect Europe from extraterritorial sanctions imposed by other countries. It was used against the US before, in response to its sanctions on Cuba in 1996, and Trump’s first term sanctions on Iran in 2018.

But Sánchez’s initiative comes at an already tense moment for EU-US relations, with the bloc trying to defend itself from the latest threat of new US tariffs on cars and other industries, and looming threat of pulling out some US troops from the continent.

Later today, the EU will discuss the implementation of last year’s trade deal with the US, agreed in Scotland, in the latest push to get it in place before Trump comes up with more ideas on how to affect transatlantic trade.

In other news, I will also keep an eye on Friedrich Merz’s first anniversary as the German chancellor, US secretary of state Marco Rubio’s upcoming trip to Italy, and lots of smaller defence developments expected across the continent today.

Lots for us to cover today.

It’s Wednesday, 6 May 2026, it’s Jakub Krupa here, and this is Europe Live.

Good morning.