Hantavirus-hit cruise ship passengers to be evacuated Monday

A luxury cruise ship at the centre of a fatal hantavirus outbreak is heading for Tenerife, where Spanish authorities say passengers are expected to begin disembarking from 11 May.

The vessel, which had been stranded off the coast of Cape Verde since Sunday, has now set course for Spain, according to a Reuters witness. Its departure came after three people were evacuated, including two who were seriously ill.

The MV Hondius, carrying nearly 150 people, is due to reach Tenerife within three days, Spain’s health minister said. She added that no one still on board was currently showing symptoms of the disease.

Speaking at a news conference in Madrid, Health Minister Monica Garcia said the ship would dock at Granadilla in Tenerife, where “a joint system for health assessment and evacuation will be put in place to repatriate all passengers, unless their medical condition prevents it”.

Sources said the European Commission would step in if any country could not bring home its own citizens, while arrangements for the evacuation of nationals from outside the EU were still being worked out.

“All the passengers will remain on the cruise ship until the arrival of their planes,” the sources said.

Ms Garcia said the 14 Spanish nationals on board the MV Hondius, including one crew member, would be taken to Madrid’s Gomez Ulla Military Hospital to undergo quarantine.

She said the length of quarantine would depend on when they may have been exposed to the virus, noting that the incubation period can last 45 days.

Three people have died in the outbreak so far: a Dutch couple and a German national.

The World Health Organization said eight people in total are suspected of having contracted the virus, including a Swiss citizen who has returned home and is receiving treatment in Zurich. Laboratory tests have confirmed three of those cases.

In the UK, two people who independently returned from the cruise have been told to self-isolate, according to the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA).

“UKHSA is aware of two people who have returned to the UK independently having been on board the MV Hondius,” the agency said.

“Neither of these individuals is currently reporting symptoms. They are receiving advice and support from UKHSA and have been advised to self-isolate,” it added.

South Africa said it had identified the Andean strain of the virus among those affected — the only hantavirus strain known, in rare instances, to pass between humans through very close contact.

“This is the only (hantavirus) strain that is known to cause human-to-human transmission, ‌but such transmission is very rare and… only happens due to very close ⁠contact,” South Africa’s health ministry said.

A person in protective gear is led to an ambulance from the medical aircraft

Even so, some residents in Tenerife voiced unease about the ship being allowed to dock there. “People are scared,” said Margarita Maria, 62, who argued that the vessel should be sent to another part of Spain.

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a social media post that the three people removed from the ship were travelling to the Netherlands.

The Dutch Foreign Ministry said those evacuees were a Dutch citizen, a German and a Briton, and that they would be taken to specialised hospitals in Europe.

One of the aircraft carrying two patients from Cape Verde to Amsterdam had been scheduled to refuel in Morocco, but Moroccan authorities declined permission for it to land. Spain’s health ministry said the plane instead diverted to Gran Canaria for refuelling.

The ship is still anchored off Cape Verde

While on the ground in Gran Canaria, the doctor on board reported a fault in one patient’s life support system. The ministry said the patient was then connected to the airport’s power supply and was waiting for a replacement aircraft to continue the journey.

Oceanwide Expeditions, the ship’s operator, said two of the evacuees were showing acute symptoms.

The third person had been in close contact with the German passenger who died on the ship on 2 May.

The Dutch ministry said that individual was possibly infected. The ship departed from the southern tip of Argentina on 1 April and visited some of the world’s most isolated locations, including the British island of Saint Helena.

In a letter to parliament, the Dutch government said about 40 people left the vessel at Saint Helena, among them the Swiss national who later developed symptoms.

Cape Verde had originally been due to serve as the ship’s final stop, but the West African island nation has barred passengers from disembarking because of the outbreak.

Since the outbreak began, the WHO has maintained that the risk to the general public from the virus — which is usually spread by rodents — remains low, and said that assessment had not changed.

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Read more:Irish people on hantavirus-hit cruise ship to quarantine in Ireland – deptWhat is hantavirus and how deadly is it?Timeline of events on board MV Hondius

“So when we say close contact (for human-to-human transmission),we mean very close physical contact, whether it’s sharing a bunkroom or sharing a cabin, providing medical care, for example,(that is) ⁠very, very different to COVID and very different to influenza,” Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO director of epidemic and pandemic management, told Reuters.

Dr Van Kerkhove said the WHO was working with countries to trace passengers who had left the ship at Saint Helena in the south Atlantic before it later reached Cape Verde.

According to Shenaaz El-Halabi, the WHO’s South Africa representative, South Africa has identified 65 people who had contact with confirmed or suspected hantavirus cases, while other countries have identified 12 more.

Passenger Kasem Hato told Reuters the captain had kept those on board regularly informed and that passengers had been told to reduce close contact and frequently use hand sanitiser.

“People are taking the situation seriously but without any panic, trying to keep social distancing and wearing masks to be safe,” he said.

“Our days have been close to normal, just waiting for authorities to find a solution, but morale on the ship is high and we’re keeping ourselves busy with reading, watching movies, having hot drinks, and that kind of things.”