STORY:
The hantavirus-hit cruise ship has been given permission to dock in Spain's Canary Islands.
Madrid's health ministry said it had been asked by the World Health Organization and the European Union to take the MV Hondius "in accordance with international law and humanitarian principles."
It added that once the ship arrives at the islands, crew and passengers would be examined, treated and repatriated to their respective countries.
On Tuesday, the ship was moored off Cape Verde, which is about three or four days of sailing away from the Canary Islands.
Officials say the deadly virus has claimed the lives of a Dutch couple and a German national.
Several passengers battling the virus were evacuated by boat to Cape Verde.
Earlier, a British national was evacuated from the ship and put in intensive care in South Africa.
The ship's operator, Oceanwide Expeditions, said two crew members required urgent medical care.
Another suspected case has only reported a mild fever.
People are usually infected by hantavirus through contact with infected rodents or their urine, droppings or saliva.
But on Tuesday, the WHO said this outbreak could be different:
"We do believe that there may be some human-to-human transmission that's happening among the really close contacts, the husband and wife, people who've shared cabins, etc."
The U.N. health body said its working assumption was that the deceased Dutch couple, who joined the ship in Argentina after traveling in the country, were infected before boarding the cruise.
Other cases may also have been infected while on bird-watching trips to islands where birds and rodents live, it said. Such trips are part of the cruise.
