‘I don’t like this very much’: Tenerife braced for arrival of hantavirus-stricken ship

Tenerife: The head of the World Health Organisation has sought to reassure residents of the Spanish island of Tenerife, 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 Tenerife later on Sunday AEST.

Intensive preparations have been made to receive the ship at the port of Granadilla, though it will not be allowed to actually dock. A 1.6-kilometre security zone will be enforced around the vessel, and passengers and some crew will then be ferried ashore by boat.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, along with Spain’s Health Minister Monica Garcia and Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska, arrived on the island on Saturday to co-ordinate the operation.

“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 statement 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 MV Hondius was currently showing symptoms of the virus.

Meanwhile, British Army medics parachuted onto Tristan da Cunha in the South Atlantic this weekend to treat a British person with hantavirus, the London Telegraph reported.

A team of six paratroopers and two military doctors jumped from an RAF A400 Atlas aircraft and landed on the remote island, which has no airstrip, early on Saturday.

The British national with confirmed hantavirus disembarked from the Hondius on Tristan da Cunha, where they live, the paper said, adding that it understood a second contact had also been placed in isolation on the island, which is a British Overseas Territory.

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 MV Hondius 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 in the outbreak, and five passengers who left the ship are infected with hantavirus.

Residents’ fears

On Tenerife, some residents have said they are worried, while some Spanish passengers on board the cruise ship have voiced concern about being stigmatised.

“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 empathised with the vessel’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 per cent 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.”

Limited belongings only

Garcia said the disembarkation in Tenerife would take place “under maximum safety conditions”.

Everyone leaving the vessel will be checked for symptoms, and won’t be taken off until a flight is already in Tenerife waiting for them, Garcia said during a news conference in Madrid. There are people of more than 20 different nationalities on board.

Authorities are aiming to complete the evacuation flights on Sunday and Monday, WHO’s director of epidemic and pandemic management Maria Van Kerkhove said in a briefing on Saturday.

A spokesperson from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said officials were travelling to the Canary Islands to provide consular assistance and co-ordinate response efforts with local authorities and partner countries. There are four Australians and one permanent resident on board.

Both Britain and the US have agreed to send aircraft to evacuate their citizens. Americans are to be quarantined at a medical centre 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 their luggage behind, Garcia said, and will be allowed to take only one small bag containing essential items, a mobile phone, a 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.

Evacuation plane on standby

According to a letter sent by the Dutch foreign and health ministers to parliament late on Friday, Spain has activated the EU civil protection mechanism for a medical evacuation plane equipped for infectious 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.

Race to trace other passengers

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.

AP

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