SCHIPHOL, Netherlands - A plane believed to be carrying a passenger from a cruise ship struck by the deadly hantavirus landed in the Netherlands on May 6 after patients were evacuated from the vessel off Cape Verde.

Downplaying fears over the outbreak aboard the MV Hondius that has killed three people, World Health Organisation chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus insisted it was not comparable to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The WHO said emergency crews evacuated three people – two sick crew members and another person who had been in contact with one of the confirmed cases – from the ship, which later left its anchorage off Cape Verde.

The three evacuees later boarded flights at the airport in Cape Verde’s capital Praia.

One of the medical planes landed in Amsterdam Airport at 1747 GMT (1.47am on May 7 in Singapore), according to AFP reporters at the scene.

Another landed at Las Palmas in Spain’s Canary Islands earlier on May 6 afternoon, an AFP journalist there saw.

Spanish officials said that plane was carrying two patients and had landed for technical reasons. Spain’s health ministry said the patients would need a new plane to travel on to the Netherlands.

Experts confirmed the version of the virus detected aboard the Hondius was a rare strain that can be transmitted between humans.

But health officials