Passengers and some crew members aboard the hantavirus-hit Dutch-flagged MV Hondius will begin disembarkation from about 07.00 GMT on Sunday after the ship arrives in Tenerife, cruise operator Oceanwide Expeditions said on Saturday.
The company said the ship was expected to arrive in Granadilla, Tenerife, at 04.30 GMT and that those leaving the vessel “will be transferred immediately to their allocated aircraft.”
WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus is expected to help coordinate the evacuation operation off Tenerife. He told the people of Tenerife that the risk to them from the virus-hit ship was "low".
"I need you to hear me clearly: this is not another Covid," Ghebreyesus wrote in an open letter to the people of the Spanish island, adding, "The current public health risk from hantavirus remains low."
Spanish Health Minister Monica Garcia Gomez said, "Neither the luggage nor the body of the deceased person will be disembarked in the Canary Islands - they will remain on board with part of the crew," as quoted by AFP.
People from more than 20 nationalities are currently on board the ship.
The World Health Organisation, Spanish authorities and Oceanwide said on Saturday that no one currently aboard the vessel is showing symptoms of the virus.
Three passengers, a Dutch husband and wife and a German woman, have died since the outbreak began, while five passengers who had already left the ship were later confirmed to be infected with hantavirus.
Health authorities confirmed that the Andes virus, the only hantavirus strain known to spread from person to person in rare cases, had been detected among infected passengers, fuelling international concern.
Hantavirus is usually spread through inhalation of contaminated rodent droppings, and symptoms can appear between one and eight weeks after exposure.
Dutch officials and the ship’s operator said that on April 24, nearly two weeks after the first passenger died on board, more than two dozen people from at least 12 countries left the ship without contact tracing.
Health authorities first confirmed hantavirus in a passenger on May 2.
