Revealed On 10 Might 2026
The cruise ship hit by a lethal hantavirus outbreak has arrived close to the Port of Granadilla in Tenerife within the Canary Islands.
The Dutch-flagged MV Hondius arrived on the Spanish port early on Sunday, escorted by a Civil Guard vessel, in response to information from the maritime monitoring service VesselFinder.
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The ship had left for Tenerife on Wednesday from the coast of Cape Verde after the World Well being Group (WHO) and European Union requested Spain to handle the evacuation of its passengers after the hantavirus outbreak was detected.
The WHO mentioned on Friday that not less than eight folks on the ship had fallen sick, together with three who died – a Dutch couple and a German nationwide. Six of those persons are confirmed to have contracted the virus with one other two suspected instances, the WHO mentioned.
All passengers on the luxurious cruise ship are being thought-about high-risk contacts as a precautionary measure, Europe’s public well being company mentioned late on Saturday as a part of its fast scientific recommendation.
In Tenerife, the passengers will probably be examined by Spanish well being authorities to make sure they continue to be asymptomatic and can then be transported to land in small boats, in response to Spanish officers.
Sealed-off buses will take the passengers to the Spanish island’s foremost airport about 10 minutes away, the place they are going to board planes heading to their respective nations.
The evacuation is predicted to start between 7:30am and eight:30am (06:30 and 07:00 GMT), in response to Spanish authorities.
Spanish nationals are set to disembark first with different nationalities to observe in teams, authorities officers mentioned. Thirty crew members will stay on board and can sail to the Netherlands, the place the ship will probably be disinfected.
‘This isn’t one other Covid’
Hantavirus is often unfold by rodents however can in uncommon instances be transmitted individual to individual.
WHO Director Common Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus arrived on Saturday night in Tenerife with Spain’s inside and well being ministers and its minister for territorial coverage to coordinate the arrival of the ship.
He gave folks in Tenerife assurances and thanked them for his or her solidarity.
“I want you to listen to me clearly,” Tedros wrote in an open letter to the folks of Tenerife on Saturday: “This isn’t one other Covid.”
WHO’s epidemic and pandemic preparedness and prevention director, Maria Van Kerkhove, mentioned that whereas all people on board will probably be labeled as “a high-risk contact”, the danger to most people and the folks of the Canaries remained low.
Within the metropolis of Granadilla de Abona early on Sunday, life appeared largely regular. Some folks had been swimming, others procuring on the market or sitting at cafe terraces.
“There are worries there might be a hazard, however truthfully, I don’t see folks being very involved,” David Parada, a lottery vendor, instructed the AFP information company.
Monitoring and tracing around the globe
The MV Hondius left Ushuaia, Argentina, on April 1 for a cruise throughout the Atlantic Ocean to Cape Verde.
Argentinian provincial well being official Juan Petrina mentioned there was an “nearly zero probability” the Dutch man linked to the outbreak contracted the illness in Ushuaia primarily based on the virus’s incubation interval, amongst different elements.
Well being authorities in a number of nations have been monitoring passengers who had already disembarked and anybody who could have come into contact with them.
A flight attendant on the Dutch airline KLM, who got here into contact with an contaminated passenger from the cruise ship and later confirmed delicate signs, examined destructive for the hantavirus, the WHO mentioned on Friday.
The passenger, the spouse of the primary particular person to die within the outbreak, had briefly been on a aircraft certain from Johannesburg to the Netherlands on April 25 however was eliminated earlier than takeoff. She died the next day in a Johannesburg hospital.
Spanish authorities mentioned a girl on that flight was additionally being examined for the hantavirus after having developed signs at dwelling in japanese Spain. She is in isolation in hospital, Secretary of State for Well being Javier Padilla mentioned.
Two Singapore residents who had been on the ship examined destructive for the illness however will stay in quarantine, the city-state’s authorities mentioned on Friday.
British well being authorities additionally mentioned on Friday that there was a suspected case on Tristan da Cunha within the South Atlantic, one of many world’s most remoted settlements with about 220 residents. The MV Hondius had stopped there on April15.
