The head of the World Health Organization today warned that more cases of Hantavirus are likely to emerge as more passengers aboard the MV Hondius test positive for the virus. WHO Director General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said he expects more cases "because of the long incubation period".

"The incubation for hantavirus or Andes virus ranges from six to eight weeks. So we expect more cases to come actually, but I hope they will be as small as possible," Dr Ghebreyesus told CNN at the Grenadilla port in Tenerife. He added: "We already have one confirmed, you know, the passenger from France, and I expect actually more because of the long incubation period", he said, referring to a woman who tested positive for the virus after arriving in France. The French woman was one of the five French nationals who disembarked from the cruise ship in Tenerife on Sunday.

She said that her "condition has unfortunately deteriorated" in the night after she was placed in isolation at Hôpital Bichat in Paris.

The French health minister, Stéphanie Rist, said on Monday on France Inter that the woman was in a serious condition. The Who Chief urged people to remain calm, reiterating that the outbreak was "not another Covid."

This comes after one of the 14 Spaniards who traveled on MV Hondius remains in hospital after testing positive for the virus.

The Ministry of Health said the result is provisional, as two samples are taken and the second provides the definitive confirmation of whether the virus is present.

He is asymptomatic and in good general health, with final results known in the coming hours, the ministry adds.

The other 13 cases have also returned provisional negative results.

The MV Hondius arrived in Tenerife on Sunday morning. Spanish authorities then began a controlled evacuation, organising passengers by nationality and transporting them from the ship to the port in smaller boats.

Three people have died in connection with the outbreak, either while on board the MV Hondius or after they had disembarked and travelled elsewhere. The ship had departed from Argentina about a month earlier. In its latest update on May 8, the World Health Organization stated that there was a total of eight reported cases of the virus.