Passengers on the Hantavirus Cruise Ship will disembark in Tenerife and return to their home countries
The cruise ship at the center of the deadly Hantavirus outbreak is expected to arrive in Tenerife, part of Spain’s Canary Islands, early Sunday to allow its passengers to disembark, Spanish officials said.
The Spanish passengers on board the MV Hondius will disembark first, said the country’s health minister, Mónica García, during a joint press conference with Spain’s interior minister on Saturday.
Belgium, Britain, France, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands and the United States will send planes to evacuate passengers from their countries, said Spain’s interior minister, Fernando Grande-Marlaska.
The European Union will send two planes to pick up passengers from other European countries, while the Netherlands will evacuate non-European citizens whose countries cannot send planes, he said.
“Spain can assure the whole world that this will be handled properly and that there will be no further communication beyond what has already happened on the ship,” said Ms. García.
Once all the passengers have left the ship, the Hondius will sail to the Netherlands to be disinfected, Mr Grande-Marlaska said.
Of the 147 people currently on board the ship, according to its operator, Oceanwide Expeditions, none have symptoms, the World Health Organization said.
When the Hondius arrives in Tenerife, the largest of the Canary Islands, passengers will be brought ashore in the port of Granadilla in closed and guarded vehicles in a tunnel closed to the public, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the World Health Organization, said in a letter on Saturday addressed to “the people of Tenerife.”
The passengers will then be sent back to their home countries, he said.
Health workers have tested the level of exposure of each passenger and the risk to the public remains low, said Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO director of epidemiology and pandemic preparedness and prevention, during a briefing on Saturday.
Any passengers showing symptoms will be taken to the next plane and flown to the Netherlands for treatment, he said.
Dr. Adhanom Ghebreyesus said he would be in Tenerife to personally oversee the work, and pay his respects “to an island that has responded to a difficult situation with kindness, solidarity and compassion.”
He assured the local residents that they have no fear.
“This is not another Covid,” he said.
The Hondius left Argentina on April 1 with 114 passengers and 61 crew. Three passengers have died, one of whom has been confirmed to have the virus, according to the WHO
Ms. García said on Saturday that a test done on a woman hospitalized in Alicante, Spain, who is suspected of having hantavirus, has come back negative.
The woman was on the same flight as one of the three passengers who died and showed weak symptoms, including coughing. A second test will be done in 24 hours to confirm the result, said Ms. García.
Seven of the 17 Americans who were on the ship have returned home, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The center said on Saturday that the remaining American passengers would be evacuated to the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha.
Although the center has an isolation unit, the CDC said the passengers will not be isolated, but will be monitored and tested for a period of 42 days, sometimes in their homes, in cooperation with local authorities and other government agencies.
Some passengers staying at home may be asked to limit outdoor activities that involve long distance communication with others, the agency said on Saturday.
It was not immediately clear how many of the American passengers could remain at the medical center in Nebraska and how many would be sent home to be recruited.
All remaining U.S. passengers are asymptomatic and testing for hantavirus is not recommended, according to the CDC. People who are asymptomatic cannot transmit the virus, the agency said.
Investigators in South Africa and Switzerland have confirmed that the Hondius hantavirus cases involve the Andes strain, which is mostly found in South America and is the only hantavirus known to spread between humans.
Early symptoms of infection include fever, chills, body aches and headache. As the illness progresses, it can cause shortness of breath and, in severe cases, lung or heart failure.
Scientists around the world have been working, in some cases for decades, to develop treatments and vaccines that specifically target hantavirus, but without much success.
Lynsey Chutel reporting contributed.
