🔴 LIVE: WHO’s Officials Gives Update on Hantavirus Situation | AC13

Added: 2026-05-10

[00:00:03]coming to you in five, three.

[00:00:11]Good afternoon from Geneva. My name is Nika Alexander. I'm part of the communications team here at WHO. This is our third update on Hivirus. We will continue to do these as needed as we see that the interest continues and today has been a really important day.

[00:00:27]Tomorrow will be as well. So I have two experts for you today. One who will be speaking with you from our uh press conference room here in Geneva and we will also have a colleague from Tenerife. I'll go to her as quickly as possible. So um the passengers and some of the crew have begun to disembark from the ship today based on nationality, the availability of airplanes to take them onwards to their home countries. Um none of them will be on commercial flights. I know people have been wondering about that and asking that question. At the moment we have a team of at least eight who colleagues in um in Tennere led by our director general himself. He's been joining press conferences. Um and uh so we have at least eight colleagues as I said and one of those will speak with us shortly. Um I wanted to start with you first though Maria. Maria Dr. Maria Vancerkov is our director of the department of epidemic and pandemic management. Um, we'll just have a few short sentences from you, Maria, on what we know, what we're seeing, what we're doing, and then we'll go to our colleague, Dr. Diana Roas Alvarez, who's the health operations lead in um, Tenerife at the moment. So, starting with you, Maria, what are the broad strokes of what happened today? Thanks so much. So, I'm very keen for you to get to Diana quickly because she's actually in the field as you said. So, broadly, what we have, and Diana will give details, is that the repatriation flights have actually started. So the boat is off the coast of the Canary Islands in Tennere and there are um smaller boat medical assessments are taking place. There are small boats that are taking passengers to shore and directly into the repatriation flights.

[00:02:01]This is an active operation with incredible coordination led by the Spanish um with support from the Netherlands and of course as you said who there is in support. I do want to maybe we can come back to this after we get a briefing from Tenneref is that there is quite a lot still going on with the contact tracing um and support for people you know who disembarked uh in St. Helena also in the airlines. So maybe we can come back to that afterwards but quite active and at the top want to say thanks to everybody who is engaged in this. It's a massive operation with coordination and choreography and I'm sure people are watching this you know on the news. Um, but we're grateful for all those involved, particularly the Spanish.

[00:02:42]>> Thanks, Maria. So, next we're going to Dr. Diana Roas Salvarez. As I said, she's the health operations lead for the World Health Organization in Tenerfe at the moment. Normally, her day job is head of emerging zooonautic diseases.

[00:02:55]She's head of that unit here at WHO. Um, Diana, I chatted with you earlier. I know what you saw today, and I think it'll be very interesting for people to understand what um what's been happening. So, over to you, please, for an update on what happened this morning.

[00:03:11]Uh, looks like the video is frozen at the moment.

[00:03:16]>> She's going to be on. Hang on a second.

[00:03:18]Just hang on. She should be joining us.

[00:03:19]>> This is live.

[00:03:21]>> This is live.

[00:03:21]>> This is >> There you go. Go ahead, Diana. Over to you.

[00:03:25]>> Yes. Thank you.

[00:03:27]>> Thank you very much. And no, I just wanted to to record that the operations here started from 7:30 a.m. in the morning. It has been extremely intense but also very well organized. So everything started with the port health authorities going to the to the ship and assessing the health of all the the passengers and the crew and then they started disembarkly by by each country.

[00:03:52]So they they started with the Spanish passengers and and the crew. Then they are transported or bring to to shore and then transported in a bus directly to the to the aircraft where they are going to they are currently being um yeah they are going back to to their home country.

[00:04:14]So this process had already happened for the the people and the the the the passengers and the crew from Spain, from France, Canada and currently is in the process for the passenger and the crew from from the Netherlands. So more operations will come during the day until sunset today. So once the sunset comes, the operations will stop and they will restart tomorrow early in the morning.

[00:04:42]So yeah, >> so it's not it's not everybody. Sorry, Diana. So it's not everybody yet. As you said, it's the passengers and some some passengers and some crew from Spain, France, Canada, and the Netherlands. And this is continuing tomorrow.

[00:04:55]>> Yes. So about 40 46 people will be disembarking today and right now I have disembarked already h today and the process will continue until the the end of the day and we restart tomorrow and it's expected to end by the end of the day tomorrow.

[00:05:16]>> And about crew um some people uh there have been a little bit of confusion. Can you just clarify? Some crew are off and some crew will be staying on the ship.

[00:05:24]Yes, absolutely. Because the ship needs to go back to the to the original port in the Netherlands. So approximately 30 members of the crew will continue in the cruise ship up to the Netherlands accompanied by a medical field.

[00:05:39]>> Um so Diana, you have been alongside Dr. Tedros today. you've been helping to translate some of the discussions so that he's fully he's in the meetings and he's fully hearing and understanding and able to input on those discussions today uh without asking for details of of those discussions which are closed those planning discussions can you just tell me what the what the mood has been for the in the meetings that you've been in what the sense you have gotten from from everyone is >> no I I guess most of the the sense here is the how proud we all are of the of the solidarity and the work that has been done by the national authorities and coordinating with the other countries from the EU. We have the European CDC here. We have several partnersh incredible to see all the coordination and how things are currently going according to plan.

[00:06:35]>> Thanks Diana. Stay on the line. and I want to come back to you later uh for any further input and also to ask you at the very end if you could make some points in Spanish because I know the Spanish speaking world is particularly interested in this whole outbreak for for variety of reasons. Um Dr. Dr. Van Kirkov, I wanted to come to you because one of the one of the points of confusion is people have been following those who have been following closely understand that this is a virus that has a relatively long incubation period meaning the person can have been exposed to the virus the virus can be in their body but they don't get sick until 6 to 8 weeks longer. And so people are asking well how do you make sure that for the next period of time as they return to their families as they transit and return to their families that they don't potentially and obviously unwillingly pass on the disease to someone else. So what has recommended and what's in place?

[00:07:25]>> Yeah thanks very much. So is like Diana has said and like we have explained it's a very coordinated action to get the passengers and the crew safely home. Uh they're very anxious to get home. We understand that completely. So there are many different steps um that are underway. Okay. So, first is the medical check on board. So, we just check to see if anybody has any symptoms, anyone is feeling unwell. If there is anyone that's unwell that has symptoms, they will be medevaced home. They won't actually go on the on the same plane as the others. Um, and then at the home country um where the passengers and the crew end up um and all of this is is being coordinated. Our recommendation is for active followup, which means daily monitoring of checks in terms of checking for fevers, checking for any types of symptoms um and that they be in either home quarantine or that they be in an in facility quarantine. And our recommendations is for 42 days and that's basically double um the incubation period that we have or the longest of the incubation period that we have. I think I just misspoke. It's actually up to I did because I'm thinking I'm sorry.

[00:08:26]>> I'm doing the math here.

[00:08:27]>> So, no, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. So it's it's actually the for the full up to six weeks. So for the Andes virus, we do know for haunt viruses it can go up to eight weeks, but for the Andes virus, it's really six weeks. So let me be very clear. Let me say that again. So our recommendations for the passengers and the crew who are on board is that they have active monitoring and followup which means daily health checks um either at home or in a specialized facility. We are leaving this up to the countries themselves to actually develop their own policies. But our recommendations are very clear and this is really a cautionary approach to make sure that we don't uh have any opportunities for this virus to pass from others. We've also recommending when they they get off the boat and when they are around others to be wearing a respirator um for that extra layer of protection. And a respirator is >> it's a FF2, FFP2 or an N95 um which has to be fit tested and it has quite quite a lot of coverage uh over over the face and the mouth of the nose and the mouth.

[00:09:23]Yeah.

[00:09:24]>> So what happens next? That's what I'll come to you for. I know that WHO has a team of at least eight people on the ground. So our director general, as we've said, he's been on press conferences. You can you can watch him.

[00:09:35]Um Diana, who's leading on health ops, which is a lot of the coordination between our colleagues and uh the Spanish authorities. We have an epidemiologist. We have a points of entry specialist, a public health specialist who's actually was on the boat um and is evacuating onwards to the Netherlands. And as I understand our colleague will be um under quarantine as well because he may have been exposed and um I think that's important to note.

[00:10:00]I have an infection prevention and control specialist and my colleagues in communication. So that's at least eight who colleagues are in Tenif at the moment. So to you Maria.

[00:10:09]>> Yes. What?

[00:10:10]>> So what are happen what will continue to happen um is the repatriation of the of the passengers and the crew. So so far the planes that have taken off Spain, France and Canada. Um the re repatriation of the first flight to the Netherlands is in progress right now.

[00:10:27]There are a number of other flights that are planned today. Turkey, UK, Ireland, US. All of that may change, but because we have to see which planes are on the tarmac, all of it is being coordinated on the ground in real time. So, some of that may change. That will happen up till 7 8:00 tonight. And then they will restart again tomorrow. The goal is to have all of the passengers and the crew with the exception of 30 crew members remaining on board um to finish the repatriation tomorrow by 7:00 p.m. and then the boat will continue on. The plan is for another health professional to board the boat. We believe it will be a nurse from from the Netherlands to support the 30 remaining crew who will travel onto the Netherlands which will take a few more days and then once it docks in the Netherlands there will be a full disinfection of the boat. While I have the floor just to say also in addition to what's happening in Tennere um there's a lot of active followup um in South Africa um from some of the contacts who cared for the patients um the woman who died unfortunately in Johannesburg the person who is in ICU again doing better. There's a lot of contact tracing, you know, for the people who met who cared for them.

[00:11:33]Testing that is ongoing. Those tests have come back ne negative so far. The numbers may change. You know, like we said, the risk to the general public, the risk to the people in the Canary Island is low, but we are actively following them because that incubation period is so long, up to up to six weeks. There was today also British medics who actually parachuted in to one of the British overseas territory to care for uh a gentleman who was unwell.

[00:12:00]Um it's a very very remote island in the Pacific. It takes two weeks to get there by boat. There's no um runway. So it's actually the only way that they can get people in. So it's a pretty massive operation um to make sure that those who are infected or might be infected are cared for appropriately. And before you hand it back to Diane, I just want to say this is what WHO does. There's so much I've got a lot of questions about this thing. Why so much attention to this? Why so much attention to this haunt virus? And of course, because we are concerned it's an infectious disease. While the risk is low to the general public, there's a lot of people that are scared. There's a lot of people that are thinking this is the next COVID. It is not the next CO. But the amount of attention that our teams have put into this, including by our director general, using the international health regulations to have people and countries communicate, this is what we do every day. It's receiving media attention today, but this is something that we do.

[00:12:53]And I think Diana saying, you know, the the solidarity and how proud people are is really something that I think should be celebrated. While we want this to all happen very safely and end as quickly as possible, um we're really proud of the the collaboration from countries, the support of SP of Spain and the Netherlands and many many others and of course our colleagues.

[00:13:13]>> Thank you. Coming back to you Diana, I just wanted to I'm going to ask you two questions. So first I'm going to ask you um again how you felt this morning. Uh I saw photographs when the boat was on the horizon and I'm not even there and I felt really emotional. I have a lot of feeling for the the boat full of people and what they've gone through as well.

[00:13:33]The the people they've lost, the stress they've been facing. Enough about me. I just wanted to hear from you what what you felt when when you saw that ship on the horizon.

[00:13:42]>> Thank you very much, Nika. No, absolutely. We were we were all looking at the at the ship and and seeing how the passengers were coming and their happiness of being finally on land was was really a a moment to to to celebrate. Also, the Spanish authorities and everyone in the ground were very very kind and welcoming to to all the passengers and and the crew. So it was really exciting because some it has been so much planning and so much coordination behind the scenes that when you when you actually start implementing all the work on the field is there is some anxiety also to to see how everything is going to turn out. So once the first disemb started then it was kind of a a relief and and a bit of joy that everything was going according to plan. But it's been great seeing all the all the all the buses coming out and people really happy to to be on land again and and being repatriated.

[00:14:46]>> That's so nice to hear. Um there's not a lot of footage of this. I I think very intentionally the idea was to keep the privacy to maintain the privacy of these passengers and the crew as well. And and now uh Diane I'll ask you to speak in Spanish. I think we've made our main points here, but because of the interest as I mentioned earlier, style cruso.

[00:15:53]for Canada.

[00:16:27]Foreign speech. Foreign speech. Foreign speech.

[00:16:58]Fore!

[00:17:07]Foreign! Foreign!

[00:17:55]That's it from my side. over to you.

[00:18:00]>> Muchas gracias. Muchas gracias, Diana.

[00:18:02]We're we're proud of you. We're proud of our colleagues um and uh of the of the international cooperation that's helping people in need. So that's it from our side. I hope you have found it informative to hear from Dr. Maria Vancov, director, department of epidemic and pandemic management. From Tenerife, Dr. Dr. Diana Roas Alvarez, our health operations lead there in Tenneref and the head for emerging zooonautic diseases unit at the moment. Maria, I'd like to hand over you over to you for the last word.

[00:18:32]>> Yeah. So, thank you very much, Na, for doing this and thanks to all the team in the field. While I have the floor, can I just say happy Mother's Day uh to all of the incredible moms out there, my mom included. But there are a lot of women obviously that are working on this response itself, making incredible sacrifices. And I just wanted to because it's Mother's Day, say happy Mother's Day.

[00:18:52]>> That's it everyone. Thanks again. Thanks for tuning in.

[00:19:00]Okay. Okay.