MONTEVIDEO - The last 14 passengers of a cruise ship struck by COVID-19 disembarked on Wednesday in Uruguay's capital Montevideo.

The passengers, including Americans, Canadians and Europeans, were set to take a humanitarian flight later in the day to the United States, Uruguay's Foreign Affairs Minister Ernesto Talvi told reporters at the cruise ship terminal.

Talvi said the procedure was taking place in keeping with strict sanitary guidelines, similar to those followed on Friday, when the majority of the cruise ship passengers, from Australia and New Zealand, disembarked to take a charter flight back home.

These types of humanitarian gestures "define us as a people," said Talvi.

An 85-member crew will remain on the ship, the Greg Mortimer, docked some 20 km off the coast, as part of quarantine measures.

Once the quarantine period ends, the ship is to sail back to Spain, its final destination.