Spain will not make “any decision” regarding the docking of the cruise ship that is potentially a mpox outbreak hotspot until “epidemiological data” has been analyzed, Spain’s Health Ministry announced today, contradicting the WHO.
Read: Mpox: Seven cases on cruise ship Hondius – What the World Health Organization reports (Video)
“Based on the epidemiological data to be collected on the ship during its passage through Cape Verde, a decision will be made on which intermediate station is most accessible. Until that moment, the Health Ministry will not adopt any decision, as we have informed the World Health Organization,” the ministry wrote on X, shortly after the WHO confirmed that Spain had agreed to receive the cruise ship in the Canary Islands. The Health Ministry later stated that it had a meeting with the WHO and had agreed that “from this afternoon, the ship will be inspected by a team of epidemiologists.”
Spain: “To determine if there are other people on the cruise ship who have developed mpox symptoms,” says the ministry
“This intervention aims to understand the health status of people on board the ship, to determine if there are other individuals who have developed symptoms, and to identify high-risk or low-risk contacts. This will help make decisions regarding repatriation procedures and the ship’s itinerary,” the ministry added in its X post.
Tras la reunión que han mantenido equipos del Ministerio de Sanidad y la Organización Mundial de la Salud se ha acordado que esta tarde se producirá una revisión del buque por un equipo de epidemiólogos. https://t.co/wPI1fSMsAM
— Ministerio de Sanidad (@sanidadgob) May 5, 2026
Ready even for disinfection on the cruise ship
“Everything is ready for care, for assessment and, if necessary, for disinfection, if requested by the WHO,” stated government spokesperson Elma Saiz after the cabinet meeting, without clarifying whether this means the ship will dock on Spanish territory or not.
From Brussels, where the regional president of the Canary Islands, Fernando Clavijo, is visiting, he estimated that “there should be care for the cruise ship where it is,” in Cape Verde, in the Atlantic, or it should be redirected to “the Netherlands,” because “it flies the Dutch flag.”
“This is a case that worries us greatly, we have essentially no information about the transmission vector,” he continued, speaking to the press.
Today, the WHO reported seven cases, two confirmed in the laboratory and five suspected.
Three people have died in connection with the outbreak recorded on the Dutch cruise ship: a Dutch couple in their 70s and a German passenger.
