World Health Organization Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said he will personally oversee the painstaking process of evacuating more than 100 people from a cruise ship dealing with an outbreak of the rare and deadly hantavirus.

“I will be there myself,” Tedros said in a letter addressed to the people of the Canary Islands, where the ship will anchor off the coast of its largest island, Tenerife. “I intend to travel to Tenerife to observe this operation firsthand, to stand alongside the health workers, port staff, and officials who are making it happen, and to personally pay my respects to an island that has responded to a difficult situation with grace, solidarity, and compassion. Your humanity deserves to be witnessed, not just acknowledged from a distance.”

The ship is currently sailing toward Tenerife, part of the Spanish and is expected to reach the island just before dawn on Sunday local time, or around midnight U.S. Eastern time, according to officials. 

Eight people on the ship had confirmed or suspected cases of the hantavirus and three people have died, the WHO said on Friday. None of the 147 people currently on board, including 60 crew members, are symptomatic, according to Oceanwide Expeditions, which owns the vessel.

There are 17 Americans on the MV Hondius, according to Oceanwide Expeditions, who will be taken off the ship in a small boat, taken to shore and immediately to a plane on the runway waiting for them. The plane, provided by the U.S. government with oversight from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, will take the Americans to the National Quarantine Center at the University of Nebraska, Omaha, according to the CDC. 

“I’m sure they’re very anxious to get home, but (we need) to make sure they do that in the most safe way possible,” Maria van Kerkhove, WHO’s acting director of the Department of Epidemic and Pandemic Preparedness and Prevention, said at a press conference on Saturday.

Each country with passengers on board the ship will proceed with a similar evacuation to awaiting planes, according to the Spanish Health Ministry.

The WHO said it was recommending each country keep the passengers removed from the ship in isolation for 42 days from the last point of exposure to the virus.

The disease is usually acquired through close contact with rodents, and not transmissable from person to person. However, testing of those who were sickened on the Hondius has confirmed they have the Andes strain of the virus, the only variation that can be transmitted through close contact with a sick individual. 

However, health experts say the chances of widespread transmission is very small.

“I know that when you hear the word ‘outbreak’ and watch a ship sail toward your shores, memories surface that none of us have fully put to rest,” Tedros said in the letter. “The pain of 2020 is still real, and I do not dismiss it for a single moment. But I need you to hear me clearly: this is not another COVID.” 

“The current public health risk from hantavirus remains low,” he continued. “My colleagues and I have said this unequivocally, and I will say it again to you now.”

The ship left Argentina on April 1 for a cruise stopping at several remote islands in the south Atlantic, including Tristan da Cunha and Saint Helena, both British territories.

The outbreak on the ship appears to have started with a Dutch couple who traveled around South America, the only place the Andes strain exists, in the months leading up to the cruise. The couple spent time bird-watching in areas where rodents are known to have tested positive for hantavirus, according to Oceanwide Expeditions.

The husband died on the ship April 11, while his wife was one of 32 people who disembarked the ship in Saint Helena, according to Oceanwide Expeditions. She would fly to South Africa and then die days later when she was removed from a KLM Airlines plane because she was too sick to fly, according to the airline.

Dozens of people on the plane or who disembarked at Saint Helena are already under observation around the world, including in the U.S. None of the people in the U.S. — in Texas, Virginia, Georgia, Arizona, New Jersey and California — are experiencing any symptoms of the virus, the state’s respective health departments have confirmed to CBS News.

In:

President Trump nominated a new director for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Thursday. Dr. Erica Schwartz is a former deputy surgeon general and retired Coast Guard rear admiral.

Joe Kent, the director of the National Counterterrorism Center, announced his resignation on Tuesday, saying he “cannot in good conscience” back the Trump administration’s war in Iran.

Sadanand Date assumed charge as Executive Director at Sebi on March 4 to head the investigations department, the markets regulator said on Friday.

Date is a 2007-batch IPS officer of the Uttarakhand cadre.

Prior to joining Sebi, he was on central deputation to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), where he served in several key roles, including Superintendent of Police in the Anti-Corruption Branch (ACB) and Bank Securities and Fraud Cell (BSFC), the regulator said in a statement.

He also headed multiple branches in Mumbai, including the Economic Offences Branch, Special Crime Branch, Special Task Branch and Anti-Corruption Branch.

During his tenure with Uttarakhand Police, Date held several leadership positions and served as Superintendent of Police or Senior Superintendent of Police in various districts, such as Uttarkashi, Nainital, Haridwar, Udham Singh Nagar and Dehradun.

He also briefly served as Inspector General (Headquarters) and Director (Traffic) before moving to Sebi.

Date is a medical graduate and holds an MBBS degree from Grant Medical College & Sir JJ Group of Hospitals, Mumbai. He also holds a Master’s degree in Police Management from Osmania University, along with MA (Economics), LLB and LLM degrees from the University of Mumbai.

In addition, he is a Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE). He is also a recipient of the President’s Police Medal for Meritorious Service.

The shooting was just one of several fatal incidents since ICE ramped up its mass deportation effort last year and raises questions about how officers are trained, especially as DHS has dodged questions about this process while more than doubling its number of agents since 2024. Recruitment efforts have been juiced by massive funding from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, as taxpayers have found themselves funding an unprecedented swelling of immigration enforcement hiring.

Federal officers have also killed at least three other people, according to The Marshall Project, and have shot at least nine people since September, according to The New York Times. 

While ICE has ballooned to more than 22,000 agents—more than double from early 2025—the “wartime recruitment” tactics it has employed could be attracting combat-hungry or inexperienced people to the job, experts warn.

Recruitment tactics led to over 200,000 applications

DHS announced last summer its plans to hire 10,000 deportation officers, using what they internally called a “wartime recruitment,” according to an internal document reviewed by The Washington Post. 

ICE officials planned to spend $100 million over a one-year period to recruit gun rights and military support through influencers and geo-targeted advertising campaigns, according to The Post. The funding is part of the $1.7 billion allocated for border and interior enforcement, including $75 billion for ICE, to be spent over four years. 

The department’s strategy dedicated $8 million to influencers, including “former agents, veterans and pro-ICE creators,” with Gen Z and millennial audiences, according to internal documents reviewed by The Post. DHS planned to work with creators across traditional social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and X as well as platforms with more conservative users such as Rumble. DHS anticipated that their influencer would bring more than 5,000 applications. 

In addition to a salary ranging from $49,739 to $89,528 a year, DHS offers up to a $50,000 signing bonus split over three years, up to $60,000 in student loan repayment and forgiveness options, and retirement benefits. 

ICE also uses a marketing strategy called “geofencing” to send ads to the phone web browsers and social media feeds of anyone located near military bases, NASCAR races, college campuses, or gun and trade shows, according to The Post.

“The recruitment initiative utilized data-driven outreach efforts to recruit qualified patriotic Americans from across the country. As a result, ICE was able to exceed its hiring surge target while maintaining rigorous standards for training and readiness,” the agency wrote in the Jan. 3 statement. 

ICE did not respond to a request for comment.

Sarah Saldaña, former director of ICE, recently told The Post she was concerned that the speed of recruitment and the framing of jobs as a war effort in marketing campaigns increased the risk of attracting people seeking combat experience. 

The department received over 220,000 applications and hired 12,000 new officers in four months. Despite reaching their personnel goal, DHS is still recruiting more officers.  

“We continue to call on American patriots to serve the homeland because we know that there’s still more work to do — and we will not stop until every community in this nation is safe,”” said ICE Deputy Director Madison D. Sheahan in a statement.

Officer training questioned 

Renee Nicole Macklin Good was shot in her car as ICE agents approached her vehicle and demanded she open the door, according to video filmed by bystanders. An ICE officer shot her at close range and was briefly hospitalized after the vehicle hit him. 

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem defended the officer who killed Macklin Good, saying that the officer “followed his training.” President Donald Trump doubled down on Wednesday, calling the video of the shooting “horrible to watch,” but said Macklin Good had “behaved horribly” and ran the agent over, even though video evidence disputes that claim. 

All new ICE agents are required to undergo the 8-week Basic Immigration Law Enforcement Training Program, during which they train 6 days a week at a facility in Georgia and learn to find, arrest, and deport people. In the past, ICE officials underwent a five-week Spanish-language training program and 16 weeks of basic training, according to the ICE website. 

The shooting comes after months of allegations of unprofessionalism and misconduct from advocacy groups. Even after a federal judge ordered ICE officers to wear individual badges, officers were seen without badges, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. Some new recruits showed up to training without full vetting, having failed drug tests, physical, or academic standards, and without disclosing criminal backgrounds. 

A senior DHS official told NBC News on Wednesday that ICE officers are trained to never approach a vehicle from the front and not to shoot at a moving vehicle because it will not stop it from moving towards the officer.

Representative Robin Kelly (D-IL) filed articles of impeachment against Noem on Wednesday. 

“Secretary Noem wreaked havoc in the Chicagoland area, and now, her rogue ICE agents have unleashed that same destruction in Minneapolis, fatally shooting Renee Nicole Good,” Kelly wrote in a statement announcing the move. “ It’s one thing to be incompetent and dangerous, but it’s impeachable to break the rule of law.”