Spain's Health Minister, Monica Garcia Gomez has confirmed that the cruise ship will dock "within three days" at Granadilla on the island of Tenerife, despite being hit with a hantavirus outbreak.
This comes after three people, who are from Britain, German and the Netherlands, were suspected to have been hit with the virus and were evacuated from MV Hondius. The World Health Organisation had confirmed that they were brought to the Netherlands to receive treatment.
Speaking at a news conference in Madrid, Health Minister, Monica Garcia Gomez said: "A joint system for health assessment and evacuation will be put in place to repatriate all passengers, unless their medical condition prevents it".
Garcia Gomez revealed that after they arrive in Tenerife, all non Spanish passengers will be returned to their own countries, while Spanish residents will be taken to a military hospital in Madrid for quarantine.
She also said that all passengers remaining on the ship are showing no symptoms, and all asymptomatic non Spanish passengers will not have to quarantine in Spain upon arrival. The minister also said that quarantine times for Spanish passengers will depend on establishing a day zero of contact as the hantavirus has an incubation period of 45 days.
The ship itself is due to set sail for Tenerife with the remaining passengers, including two Irish people and its crew. Its passengers and crew have been in isolation after Cape Verde authorities barred the ship from docking.
MV Hondius is anchored just off the island nation's capital, Praia.
The head of the archipelago's regional government, Fernando Clavijo, has said the vessel's owner requested to dock on Saturday in Tenerife, which is the largest of Spain's Canary Islands.
"The shipowner - and this is a request that is currently being considered - has asked to dock on the 9th, to berth in a port in Tenerife", Clavijo said, while adding that he had been informed of the request by the port authority.
The WHO have confirmed that eight cases of hantavirus were identified, with three confirmed by laboratory testing. They said the strain was detected in the outbreak on MV Hondius is the Andes virus.
It was also confirmed that human-to-human transmission was also reported in previous outbreaks one one particular hantavirus, called Andes virus, which also circulates in South America.
The WHO Director General, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has insisted that the overall health risk to the public remains low. He said he did not believe that the hantavirus outbreak does hold similarities with the start of the Covid pandemic.
However, when asked if the WHO viewed the hantavirus situation as similar to the emergency which brought out the beginning of the Covid pandemic, Dr Tedros said: "No, I don't think so".
