Two air ambulances sent to retrieve three people believed infected with hantavirus on a cruise ship off Cape Verde left the archipelago nation's airport on Wednesday, an AFP journalist witnessed.

The three were evacuated from the boat earlier, according to WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who said they were being taken to the Netherlands.

The two airplanes left one after the other, the first and larger headed to the Netherlands, according to flight tracker Flightradar24. Landing is scheduled for after 6:00 pm local time (1600 GMT).

The MV Hondius cruise ship has been at the centre of an international alert since Saturday, when the WHO was informed that three passengers had died and the suspected cause was hantavirus.

The Dutch-flagged ship set sail from Ushuaia in Argentina on April 1 on a voyage through the Atlantic Ocean. It has been anchored off Cape Verde since Sunday.

It counted 88 passengers and 59 crew members, with 23 nationalities onboard, the WHO said.

Source: AFP