3 evacuated from hantavirus cruise ship as Canary Islands does about-face, opts not to let it dock there

Three patients suspected of having the hantavirus have been evacuated from the MV Hondius cruise ship and are on their way to the Netherlands to receive medical care, the World Health Organization said Wednesday. The three are German, Dutch and British, the last of whom is a crew member, according to the WHO.

The rare outbreak of the virus has already killed three.

And in the latest twist in the hellish ordeal for the 150 or so passengers on board, the leader of the Canary Islands has rejected a plan for the ship to dock there.

The plan, coordinated between the Spanish government and the WHO, had been for the ship to head to the Canary Islands for a "full investigation" and "full inspection" after the three were evacuated.

But the leader of the archipelago's regional government, Fernando Clavijo, rejected the idea Wednesday, saying he has requested a meeting with Spain's socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez. 

In a social media post Wednesday, Clavijo, who is part of the conservative opposition, wrote: "The Canary Islands always acts with responsibility, but it cannot accept decisions taken behind the backs of the Canary Islands institutions and without sufficient information to the population."

A flight planned to evacuate the ship's doctor, who has been taken sick, to the Canary Islands was canceled, a source close to the regional presidency told the French news agency AFP on Wednesday. 

Spain's health ministry announced later that they would instead be treated in the Netherlands.

The news comes as South African authorities confirmed Wednesday that they had identified the so-called Andes strain of the hantavirus in two people previously on the cruise. The Andes strain, which is found primarily in Argentina and Chile, can be transmitted from human to human, unlike any other strain of the virus.

Also on Wednesday, Swiss authorities announced that a man who previously traveled on the ship and returned home at the end of April has also tested positive for the Andes strain of the virus.

"There is currently no risk to the Swiss public," they said in a statement.

And the French ministry of health has told BFM TV that a French "contact case" can been confirmed. The man is believed to have traveled on the same flight as one of the two patients evacuated to Johannesburg for treatment in late April.

There is currently one British national in South Africa in intensive care. French authorities are likely referring to the other patient evacuated to Johannesburg: a 69-year-old Dutch woman who got off the boat with "gastrointestinal symptoms" on April 24 and died two days later, after her condition "deteriorated during a flight to Johannesburg," the WHO said. 

That brings the total number of suspected or confirmed cases to nine: three dead, five confirmed as receiving treatment, and the Frenchman, about whom there have been few details given.

The ship's operator, Oceanwide Expeditions, said two infectious disease specialists were en route Wednesday from the Netherlands to the ship and will "remain with the vessel after its anticipated departure from Cape Verde."

The Dutch-flagged MV Hontius, a luxury cruise-liner, left Ushuaia in Argentina on April 1. It has been anchored off the island of Cape Verde off Africa's west coast since Sunday.

Ann Lindstrand, the WHO's representative in Cape Verde, told CBS News' Ramy Inocencio on Tuesday that there is no risk of a pandemic-level threat with the hantavirus, given the low likelihood of human-to-human transmission.

Spanish and Dutch authorities are "intensely discussing" what will happen next to the passengers on board, she added. They have been told to remain in their cabins as much as possible. 

"If there is the need for a quarantine, that will be a decision of the health authorities in Spain or Holland at that point in time, with the close collaboration with the advice of WHO," Lindstrand said.

If needed, a quarantine could last as long as two months, since the incubation period for hantavirus is between one and eight weeks, she said.

"Eight weeks is a horribly long time to be in quarantine," she added. 

Lindstrand said she is in touch with a volunteer doctor on the boat who told her that passengers were "coping surprisingly well," though they are anxious to know what their next port of call will be.

"We have heard from quite a few people on the boat," said Maria Van Kerkhove, the World Health Organization's director of epidemic and pandemic preparedness and prevention, on Tuesday. "We just want you to know we are working with the ship's operators. We are working with the countries where you are from. We hear you. We know that you are scared."