The 147 passengers of the Hondius cruise ship, which is heading to the Canary Islands after a hantavirus outbreak was detected, will disembark next Sunday at sea in groups of no more than five people and by nationality. From the cruise ship, they will transfer to some zodiacs arranged by the shipowner and from there they will head to the dock. Specifically, they will be transferred to a specific area of the port of Granadilla “that meets the highest biological containment measures.” Their luggage will be grouped by nationality and disinfected by the ship’s crew before disembarkation, within the protocol established by Foreign Health. If any passenger shows symptoms before arrival, they will disembark first to be referred to the isolation unit of the Hospital de la Candelaria and their luggage will be managed by the shipping company. They would never reach land. After them, close contacts will disembark grouped by nationalities.

The Ministry of Health has confirmed that the South African citizen who had brief and mild contact with people infected with hantavirus and traveled to Barcelona to spend a few days has been located. According to the authorities, the woman is in South Africa and shows no symptoms, after having stayed a week in Barcelona before returning to her country. The epidemiological investigation carried out has confirmed that, during her stay, she stayed alone in a hotel and did not have close contacts.

The Secretary of State for Health, Javier Padilla, has reported that a person has been taken to a hospital in Alicante for having symptoms compatible with hantavirus, after sitting two rows behind a Dutch woman with symptoms who was on the KLM plane between Johannesburg and Amsterdam and who ultimately died from the virus the following day.

The Secretary of State for Health, Javier Padilla, assured today that none of the passengers of the MV Hondius ship, where a hantavirus outbreak has broken out, have expressed opposition to undergoing quarantine when they are evacuated to the Gómez Ulla Military Hospital in Madrid from the port of Granadilla de Abona in Tenerife, where the technical team from the Ministry of Health will also be deployed tomorrow.

The island of Saint Helena is 2,000 kilometers from the African continent and, although the closest point is Angola, it is the South African company SouthAfrican Airlink that every Saturday connects the island with Johannesburg, in the only weekly flight that lands and takes off from Saint Helena International Airport.

The Hondius cruise ship will enter, as planned, the Canary Islands next Sunday, at the industrial port of Granadilla but will not dock on land. The Government of Spain has responded to the request made by the Canary Islands from the first day it was known that the cruise ship was going to be diverted to the islands and it will remain anchored, moreover not for long.

The Ministry of Health, with Mónica García, wanted yesterday to make it clear that the law supports the Government in imposing a mandatory quarantine on the 14 Spaniards (13 passengers and one crew member) traveling on the Hondius cruise ship affected by a hantavirus outbreak. In this way, it responded to what was said the previous day by the Minister of Defense, Margarita Robles, who spoke of a “voluntary” confinement at the Gómez Ulla hospital in Madrid.