OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 30 points and the Oklahoma City Thunder won their fifth in a row, 141-106 over the Charlotte Hornets on Friday night.
Gilgeous-Alexander, the NBA’s top scorer at 33.0 points per game, returned to the lineup after sitting out Wednesday night's lopsided win against Philadelphia. He made 13 of 18 shots to go with six rebounds and nine assists before sitting out the fourth quarter.
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Charlotte Hornets center Jusuf Nurkic (11) tries to block a shot by Oklahoma City Thunder center Isaiah Hartenstein (55) during the first half of an NBA basketball game Friday, March 21, 2025, in Oklahoma City. (AP Photo/Nate Billings)
Charlotte Hornets guard KJ Simpson, left, and Oklahoma City Thunder guard Cason Wallace, right, chase the ball during the first half of an NBA basketball game Friday, March 21, 2025, in Oklahoma City. (AP Photo/Nate Billings)
Oklahoma City Thunder forward Chet Holmgren, right, drives against Charlotte Hornets guard KJ Simpson, left, during the first half of an NBA basketball game Friday, March 21, 2025, in Oklahoma City. (AP Photo/Nate Billings)
Charlotte Hornets forward Miles Bridges (0) tries to score against Oklahoma City Thunder forward Jaylin Williams, left, during the second half of an NBA basketball game Friday, March 21, 2025, in Oklahoma City. (AP Photo/Nate Billings)
Charlotte Hornets forward Moussa Diabate, right, goes up for a dunk as Oklahoma City Thunder forward Chet Holmgren, lower center, watches during the second half of an NBA basketball game Friday, March 21, 2025, in Oklahoma City. (AP Photo/Nate Billings)
Charlotte Hornets guard Nick Smith Jr., right, drives against Oklahoma City Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, center, as Thunder forward Jaylin Williams (6) watches during the first half of an NBA basketball game Friday, March 21, 2025, in Oklahoma City. (AP Photo/Nate Billings)
Oklahoma City Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (2) looks to shoot over Charlotte Hornets guard Nick Smith Jr. (8) as Hornets forward Miles Bridges (0) watches during the first half of an NBA basketball game Friday, March 21, 2025, in Oklahoma City. (AP Photo/Nate Billings)
Chet Holmgren added 14 points, five rebounds and three blocks for Oklahoma City, which clinched the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference for the second consecutive season when Milwaukee beat the Lakers on Thursday.
Isaiah Hartenstein had 12 points and 10 rebounds for the Thunder, who played without injured starters Lu Dort and Jalen Williams. Oklahoma City led 66-49 at halftime after Kenrich Williams banked in a 29-foot shot at the buzzer, and 103-76 after three quarters.
Miles Bridges scored 20 points and Nick Smith Jr. added 14 for Charlotte, which played without injured starters LaMelo Ball (ankle) and Mark Williams (foot).
Ball and Williams combined for 44 points the night before in a win over the New York Knicks. The Hornets have lost six games by 30 or more points in the last month.
Hornets: Charlotte relied on the long ball to keep this one close until the third quarter, connecting on 19 of 41 from 3-point range (46.3%).
Thunder: Oklahoma City's depth helped the team surpass last season's win total and improve to 26-1 against the East.
Charlotte pulled within 75-65 on a 3-pointer by DaQuan Jeffries. Following a timeout, Oklahoma City responded with a 20-3 run to make it 95-68 with 3:37 left in the third.
Oklahoma City outscored the Hornets 64-26 in the paint.
The Hornets visit Miami on Sunday night, and the Thunder visit the Clippers the same day.
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Charlotte Hornets center Jusuf Nurkic (11) tries to block a shot by Oklahoma City Thunder center Isaiah Hartenstein (55) during the first half of an NBA basketball game Friday, March 21, 2025, in Oklahoma City. (AP Photo/Nate Billings)
Charlotte Hornets guard KJ Simpson, left, and Oklahoma City Thunder guard Cason Wallace, right, chase the ball during the first half of an NBA basketball game Friday, March 21, 2025, in Oklahoma City. (AP Photo/Nate Billings)
Oklahoma City Thunder forward Chet Holmgren, right, drives against Charlotte Hornets guard KJ Simpson, left, during the first half of an NBA basketball game Friday, March 21, 2025, in Oklahoma City. (AP Photo/Nate Billings)
Charlotte Hornets forward Miles Bridges (0) tries to score against Oklahoma City Thunder forward Jaylin Williams, left, during the second half of an NBA basketball game Friday, March 21, 2025, in Oklahoma City. (AP Photo/Nate Billings)
Charlotte Hornets forward Moussa Diabate, right, goes up for a dunk as Oklahoma City Thunder forward Chet Holmgren, lower center, watches during the second half of an NBA basketball game Friday, March 21, 2025, in Oklahoma City. (AP Photo/Nate Billings)
Charlotte Hornets guard Nick Smith Jr., right, drives against Oklahoma City Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, center, as Thunder forward Jaylin Williams (6) watches during the first half of an NBA basketball game Friday, March 21, 2025, in Oklahoma City. (AP Photo/Nate Billings)
Oklahoma City Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (2) looks to shoot over Charlotte Hornets guard Nick Smith Jr. (8) as Hornets forward Miles Bridges (0) watches during the first half of an NBA basketball game Friday, March 21, 2025, in Oklahoma City. (AP Photo/Nate Billings)
TENERIFE, Spain (AP) — The head of the World Health Organization sought Saturday to reassure residents of the Spanish island where passengers of a hantavirus-stricken cruise ship are expected to be evacuated, issuing them a direct message that the virus was “not another COVID.”
The Dutch-flagged MV Hondius, with more than 140 passengers and crew on board, is headed to Spain's Canary Islands, off the coast of West Africa, and is expected to arrive at the island of Tenerife early Sunday.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, along with Spain’s Health Minister Monica Garcia and Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska, were due on the island Saturday to coordinate the disembarkation of passengers and some crew.
“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. The pain of 2020 is still real, and I do not dismiss it for a single moment,” Tedros said in a message to the people of Tenerife.
“But I need you to hear me clearly: This is not another COVID. 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,” Tedros added.
The WHO, Spanish authorities and cruise company Oceanwide Expeditions said nobody on the Hondius is currently showing symptoms of the virus.
Hantavirus can cause life-threatening illness. It usually spreads when people inhale contaminated residue of rodent droppings and isn’t easily transmitted between people. But the Andes virus detected in the cruise ship outbreak may be able to spread between people in rare cases. Symptoms usually show between one and eight weeks after exposure.
Three people have died since the outbreak, and five passengers who left the ship are infected with hantavirus.
Some on Tenerife say they are worried. On board the cruise ship, some Spanish passengers have voiced concern about being stigmatized.
“I tell you, I don’t like this very much,” said 69-year-old resident Simon Vidal. “Anyone can say what they want. Why did they have to bring a boat from another country here? Why not anywhere else, why bring it to the Canary Islands?”
Others said they empathized with the boat's passengers, but were still concerned.
“The truth is that it is very worrying,” said 27-year-old Venezuelan immigrant Samantha Aguero. She added: “We feel a bit unsafe, we don’t feel as there are 100% security measures in place to welcome it. This is a virus after all and we have lived this during the pandemic. But we also need to have empathy.”
Spanish Health Minister Monica Garcia said passengers and some crew would disembark in Tenerife “under maximum safety conditions.”
The ship will not dock but will remain at anchor. Everyone disembarking will be checked for symptoms and won't be taken off the ship until a flight is already in Tenerife waiting to fly them off the island, Garcia said during a news conference in Madrid. There are currently people of more than 20 different nationalities on board.
Both the U.S. and the U.K. have agreed to send planes to evacuate their citizens. Americans are to be quarantined at a medical center in Nebraska.
All Spanish passengers will be transferred to a medical facility and quarantined, Garcia said. Oceanwide has listed 13 Spanish passengers and one Spanish crew member on board.
Those disembarking will leave behind their luggage, Garcia said, and will be allowed to take only a small bag with essential items, a cellphone, charger and documentation.
Some crew, as well as the body of a passenger who died on board, will remain on the ship, which will sail on to the Netherlands, where it will undergo disinfection, the minister added.
According to a letter sent by the Dutch foreign and health ministers to parliament late Friday, Spain has activated the EU civil protection mechanism for a medical evacuation plane equipped for infections diseases to be on standby in case anyone on the ship becomes ill. That person would then be transported by air to the European mainland.
The Dutch government will work with Spanish authorities and the ship company to arrange repatriation of Dutch passengers and crew as soon as possible after arrival in Tenerife, subject to medical conditions and advice from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, the letter said. Those without symptoms will go into home quarantine for six weeks and be monitored by local health services.
As the ship is Dutch-flagged, the Netherlands may also temporarily accommodate people of other nationalities and monitor them in quarantine, it said.
Health authorities across four continents were tracking down and monitoring more than two dozen passengers who disembarked before the deadly outbreak was detected. They were also scrambling to trace others who may have come into contact with them.
On April 24, nearly two weeks after the first passenger had died on board, more than two dozen people from at least 12 different countries left the ship without contact tracing, Dutch officials and the ship’s operator have said.
It wasn’t until May 2 that health authorities first confirmed hantavirus in a passenger.
Dutch public health authorities have been monitoring people who were on a flight that was briefly boarded by a Dutch ship passenger who later died and was confirmed to have hantavirus. Three people who were on the flight and had symptoms have all tested negative for hantavirus, Dutch National Institute for Public Health spokesperson Harald Wychgel told The Associated Press on Saturday.
Becatoros reported from Sparta, Greece. Associated Press reporters Angela Charlton in Paris and Helena Alves in Tenerife contributed to this report.
A Spanish Civil Guard officer inspects the area where passengers from the MV Hondius cruise ship are expected to arrive at the port of Granadilla in Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain, Saturday, May 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)
Media crew members stand in the area where passengers from the MV Hondius cruise ship are expected to arrive at the port of Granadilla in Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain, Saturday, May 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)
Workers set up temporary shelters in the area where passengers from the MV Hondius cruise ship are expected to arrive at the port of Granadilla in Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain, Saturday, May 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)
Passengers on the hantavirus-stricken cruise ship, MV Hondius, scan the horizon with binoculars during their voyage to Spain's port of Tenerife, May 6, 2026. (AP Photo)
Passengers on the the hantavirus-stricken cruise ship, MV Hondius, watch epidemiologists board the boat in Praia, during their voyage to Spain's port of Tenerife, May 6, 2026. (AP Photo)
A passenger checks his camera inside his cabin on the hantavirus-stricken cruise ship, MV Hondius, during the voyage to Spain's port of Tenerife, May 6, 2026. (AP Photo)
Crew members of the hantavirus-stricken cruise ship, MV Hondius, wait their turns for a first interview with epidemiologists, during the voyage to Spain's port of Tenerife, May 6, 2026. (AP Photo)
A passenger on the the hantavirus-stricken cruise ship, MV Hondius, takes a photo of the ship's weighing anchor in Praia, during the voyage to Spain's port of Tenerife, May 6, 2026. (AP Photo)
