The Dutch-flagged vessel, which has around 150 people on board, is expected to arrive at the Spanish island of Tenerife on Sunday. Special flights will then take passengers to their home countries.
In a bid to allay fears about a further outbreak, WHO spokesman Christian Lindmeier said: “This is a dangerous virus, but only to the person who’s really infected, and the risk to the general population remains absolutely low.
A picture was emerging from MV Hondius where “even those who have been sharing cabins don’t seem to be both infected in some cases”, he added.
He added: “The virus is not that contagious that it easily jumps from person to person.”
A flight attendant on the Dutch airline KLM, who came into contact with an infected passenger from the cruise ship and later showed mild symptoms, tested negative for hantavirus, the WHO said on Friday.
The passenger - the wife of the first person to die in the outbreak, and who later died from the virus - had briefly been on a plane bound from Johannesburg to the Netherlands on April 25, but was removed before take-off.
She died the following day in a Johannesburg hospital.
Lindmeier said the flight attendant testing negative was “good news”, as it showed that someone could come into contact with an infected person and still not catch the virus.
As for the HM Hondius, Spanish authorities have said the ship will anchor off Tenerife and will not be allowed to dock.
Passengers will be transferred to shore on a smaller vessel, then by bus to the airport.
The evacuation must happen between Sunday and Monday due to likely adverse weather conditions afterwards, the Canarian regional government said.
Dockers in Tenerife protested on Friday against the arrival of the ship.
The cruise called at several remote British islands in the South Atlantic.
British health authorities said Friday there was a suspected case on Tristan da Cunha, one of the world’s most isolated settlements with around 220 people.
- AFP
