The Dutch government has sent two medicalized air ambulances to Cape Verde that are evacuating the two passengers from the luxury cruise ship ‘Hondius’ who are in the most serious condition and supposedly infected with hantavirus, as well as a third who has begun to show symptoms, according to sources close to the matter. The three patients will be transferred to the Netherlands to receive medical care.
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Sources close to the crisis management explain that the Dutch government activated these planes last night due to the seriousness of the situation and the refusal of Cape Verde and the “buts” from Spain to receive the ship. Today, both the president of the Canary Islands government, Fernando Clavijo, and the Minister of Health have considered that the cruise should be attended to “where it was.” Clavijo considered it “unreasonable” to make a stopover in the Canary Islands.
Minister Mónica García and the Canary Islands president, Fernando Clavijo, consider it “unreasonable” to make a stopover in the Canary Islands
“There are many Dutch interests at stake. The shipowner is from the country and the ship’s flag is the Netherlands, which is like a piece of the country on the high seas,” these sources explain, adding that everything that happens on board a ship with a flag is as if it happened in its territory. “It has the same legal value,” they point out.
The Dutch government has acted swiftly in response to the image crisis that was occurring and the pressure from Dutch society, according to these sources.
Once the patients are evacuated, a decision will be made in the coming hours on whether the ship docks in Cape Verde after epidemiological checks, continues to the Canary Islands, or proceeds to the Netherlands to disembark the rest of the passengers.
