Here’s what to know:
Three people died but the risk to the wider public is low.
While three passengers died and more might have caught the virus, Hans Kluge, the W.H.O. regional director for Europe, said on Monday that the risk to the wider public remained low. “There is no need for panic or travel restrictions,” the Reuters news agency quoted him as saying.
The three people who died were a Dutch couple and a German citizen, according to Oceanwide.
The first fatality was a 70-year-old Dutch man who died on board the ship on April 11. Nearly two weeks later, on April 24, his body was taken off the ship at St. Helena Island, a British protectorate in the South Atlantic, to be repatriated to the Netherlands, Oceanwide said. The man had experienced a fever, a headache, abdominal pain and diarrhea.
His 69-year-old wife, who left the ship with her husband’s body, became ill during the return journey and collapsed at O.R. Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg, South Africa, while attempting to fly home to the Netherlands. She was taken to a health facility, where she died.
Then, on May 2, a German passenger died aboard the ship, according to Oceanside.
A British citizen fell ill during the voyage between St. Helena and Ascension Island and was in intensive care in Johannesburg, South Africa, on Monday. His laboratory results had come back positive for hantavirus, said Foster Mohale, a spokesman for the National Department of Health in South Africa.
Dr. Ann Lindstrand, a W.H.O. official in Cape Verde, said in an email that a previously suspected new case on the ship was completely asymptomatic at reassessment on Monday evening.
