Spanish authorities were preparing to take in more than 140 passengers and crew aboard a hantavirus-affected cruise ship en route to the Canary Islands, where health authorities said they would carry out careful evacuations.
The ship is expected to arrive on Sunday on the island of Tenerife, off the coast of West Africa, and passengers will be taken to a "totally isolated and cordoned off area", the head of Spain's emergency services said, Virginia Barcones.
Preparations were in full swing at the port of Granadilla, where workers were busy setting up a tent zone. We could already see a Civil Guard tent.
Both the United States and the United Kingdom agreed to send planes to evacuate their nationals from the liner.
With three people dead since the outbreak began and five passengers leaving the ship known to be infected with the hantavirus, cruise line Oceanwide Expeditions said Friday that no one had symptoms that could indicate a infection on board the MV Hondius, a Dutch-flagged ship.
The World Health Organization believes that the risk posed by this epidemic to the general public is low.
