The cruise ship linked to a deadly Hantavirus outbreak arrived early Sunday off the Spanish island of Tenerife, where passengers began to evacuate and fly to their home countries.

Passengers are being tested by Spanish health authorities to ensure they are asymptomatic before being transported ashore in small boats, Spanish officials said, according to Reuters.

Spanish health authorities confirmed that the first plane carrying the Spanish passengers has departed for a military hospital in Madrid, where they will be under quarantine.

The 17 Americans aboard the MV Hondius will be flown to a medical center in Nebraska after health officials allow them to disembark.

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A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) official told ABC News on Saturday morning that federal officials currently do not plan to mandate quarantine when the American passengers arrive in Nebraska.

They will instead be screened upon arrival in the U.S. and either stay briefly at Nebraska’s National Quarantine Unit or return home to monitor for symptoms for 42 days while staying in contact with local health authorities, the official said.

The ship set course for Spain on Wednesday from the coast of Cape Verde after the WHO and European Union requested assistance in managing the outbreak.

The ship’s arrival comes hours after World Health Organization Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus arrived on the island.

The WHO said Friday that eight people aboard the ship had fallen ill, including three who died. Six cases have been confirmed, with two others suspected.

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In a statement Saturday, Ghebreyesus said the public health risk remains low.

“I know you are worried. I know that when you hear the word ‘outbreak’ and watch a ship sail toward your shores, memories surface that none of us have fully put to rest,” he said.

“The pain of 2020 is still real, and I do not dismiss it for a single moment. But I need you to hear me clearly: this is not another COVID-19. The current public health risk from Hantavirus remains low. My colleagues and I have said this unequivocally, and I will say it again to you now,” he continued.

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Ghebreyesus noted that the virus identified aboard the ship is the Andes strain of hantavirus, which can be severe.

“Three people have lost their lives, and our hearts go out to their families,” he wrote, reiterating that the public health risk posed by the virus remained low.

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About 30 crew members are expected to remain on board as the vessel continues to the Netherlands, where it will be disinfected.

Fox News Digital’s Robert McGreevy, The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

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FIRST ON FOX: Eating healthy doesn’t have to be complicated, according to celebrity chef Rocco DiSpirito.

In an exclusive interview with Fox News Digital, the restaurateur and owner of New York City’s new Bar Rocco – whose philosophy and cookbooks are rooted in health-conscious dieting – shared a few misconceptions about healthy eating, especially when the end goal is weight loss.

“There is no one fix, there’s no one cure for everyone,” he said. “Everyone has different needs and their weight-loss journey is going to be different. So, you really have to figure out what your problem is.”

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This could be a body composition imbalance, a lack of exercise or a generally poor diet, DiSpirito mentioned. “Figure out what will help you address those issues most quickly,” he advised.

“Even if you’re working out, unless you’re LeBron James and burning 8,000 calories a game, there’s no way to out-train a bad diet, so at some point in our lives, we have to come to a reckoning with what we consume.”

DiSpirito says it’s “always a good idea” to start with the basics, including consuming less sugar, less alcohol, fewer processed foods and fewer processed carbs, as well as eating more protein.

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The chef revealed that the No. 1 issue he’s witnessed is that people have “no idea how many calories they’re consuming.”

“We’re all consuming two to three times more than we realize,” he noted. “And even when we count and use the apps, there’s a lot of fuzzy math going on.”

“So, getting a handle on how much you’re consuming, even the little picking that you do while you’re cooking and cleaning, all that counts and adds up quickly.”

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As the healthy eating movement gains traction, DiSpirito called it “very important” for most of the U.S., as the country faces an “obesity issue.”

“Restaurants are definitely thinking about it as well,” he said. “[But] I wouldn’t say restaurants are making it their [top] priority.”

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“We still have a lot of work to do just getting people in and seated and fed and their checks to them when they want. But there are some restaurants that are focused on it.”

Privately, DiSpirito said he has focused on providing healthy meal plans for clients.

“But for restaurants to approach healthy eating is a little difficult, because it’s a whole different kind of cooking and a [different] kind of energy,” he said.

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“Healthy eating isn’t fun – so to bring that into a fun atmosphere is kind of difficult. It’s difficult to mix the two.”

This crossroads between indulgence and health may be a tricky mix, especially among the food supply in America, DiSpirito acknowledged – but the two align more easily in other countries where the food is not tampered with, he added.

“If you go to Italy, for example, and just eat everything they eat, it feels indulgent … and it’s also very healthy,” he said. “And the key is the food supply is still natural. It’s still organic.”

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“There aren’t lots of sprayed food [or] sprayed vegetables in Italy,” DiSpirito went on. “They don’t allow a lot of messing around with food that we allow in the United States, the GMO-ing, the modifying.”

“So healthy and indulgent are not mutually exclusive, but in [our] food supply system … it’s very difficult.”