The WHO says the Hantavirus outbreak is ‘not another COVID-19’ during the outbreak

17 Americans will be among 150 people evacuated from the M/V Hondius after the Hantavirus outbreak as the head of the World Health Organization tells the public that the virus is “not another COVID-19.”

The ship, which will dock off the coast of the Canary Islands in Spain on Sunday, will soon be followed by Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO).

In a long Saturday morning message sent to X, Ghebreyesus assured the world that the risk posed by Hantavirus to public health remains low.

“I know you are worried. I know that when you hear the word ‘outbreak’ and watch the ship sail towards your shore, memories come up that none of us have fully rested,” wrote Ghebreyesus.

“The pain of 2020 is still real, and I’m not wasting a minute. But I need you to hear me clearly: this is not another COVID-19. The current public health risk from Hantavirus remains low. My colleagues and I say this unequivocally, and I will say it to you now,” he continued.

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Ghebreyesus said he will personally travel to Tenerife, Canary island where the passengers will arrive after leaving the ship.

“I intend to go to Tenerife to see this work for myself, to stand next to the health workers, port workers and officials who are doing this, and pay it forward personally to an island that responds to a difficult situation with kindness, solidarity, and compassion.

Health workers disembark from the Dutch cruise ship MV Hondius from Cape Verde on May 4, 2026, after three passengers died and several others became seriously ill from a suspected hantavirus outbreak. (Qasem Elhato/AP)

“Your personality deserves to be proven, not just acknowledged from afar. As I have said many times: viruses do not care about politics, and they do not respect borders. The best defense for any of us is unity,” continued the head of the WHO.

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However, Dr. Tedros also warned the public to be vigilant about the virus which has already killed three people on board.

“The virus aboard the MV Hondius is the Andes type of hantavirus. It is very bad. Three people have lost their lives, and our hearts go out to their families,” he wrote, although he reiterated that the public health risk is low.

The cruise ship MV Hondius docks in the port of Praia, Cape Verde, on May 3, 2026, amid an outbreak of severe respiratory disease that has killed two people and left a third patient in intensive care in Johannesburg, South Africa. The patient was diagnosed with hantavirus, according to South African health officials. (AFP via Getty Images)

The US government plans to continue evacuating American passengers from a military base in Nebraska for isolation and surveillance, Fox News Digital previously reported.

President Donald Trump weighed in personally on the outbreak, telling reporters on Friday, “We have very good people looking at us. It seems to be OK. They know the virus well. They’ve worked with it for a long time. They know it very well. It’s not easy to transmit. So we hope that’s true.”

“Our American passengers, they will be taken to Nebraska, to a center where they will be monitored. They will be isolated, they will check their vital signs, their temperature, their oxygen level, their blood pressure,” Dr. Janet Nesheiwat, a former Trump-tapped nominee for Surgeon General, told Fox News on Saturday.

“If they start to develop any symptoms, we can intervene early. Because as it is now, there is no specific treatment for this virus without supportive care, such as oxygen, fluids, hydration, analgesics,” he said.

Fox News Digital reached out to the WHO and CDC for further comment but did not immediately receive a response.

Brittany Miller of Fox News Digital contributed to this report.