Unprecedented deployment to evacuate the 151 people from the Hondius cruise ship where a hantavirus outbreak has originated, and to prevent this virus from spreading throughout Tenerife and the rest of Spanish territory. Under the coordination of Spain, the World Health Organization (WHO), the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), and the European Civil Protection Centre, the evacuation of passengers and crew to 23 countries will take place this morning.
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None of the passengers, nor the health, military, civil protection, and logistics teams deployed there, will have contact with the civilian population of Tenerife. Neither by land (road closed from the port of Granadilla to the airport) nor by sea (navigation prohibited within one nautical mile of the Hondius). All areas involved in the disembarkation of the Hondius will be isolated, explained ministers Mónica García (Health) and Fernando Grande-Marlaska (Interior) at a press conference yesterday before departing for Tenerife.
The repatriation plan will be supervised from the command post set up at the Port of Granadilla by García, Marlaska, and Ángel Víctor Torres (Minister of Territorial Policy), as well as by the WHO Secretary-General, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. It could extend until tomorrow, awaiting the relevant planes from the countries of origin. The idea is to do everything quickly, explained Marlaska, but safely. And if the planes are not there, no one will disembark from the ship.
WHO confirms six cases and two suspected, including the woman from Alicante who still has a cough
While waiting for the passengers to be examined by medical teams on the ship, the latest data provided by the WHO epidemiologists assisting on the same vessel is that all remain asymptomatic. This has also been communicated by Oceanwide Expeditions, the company owning the cruise, which explained that the four medical professionals who boarded before the ship’s departure from Cape Verde on May 6 are leading the health monitoring on board. The shipping company has stated that “the atmosphere on board remains positive” and that passengers and crew follow the medical staff’s instructions.
The WHO has confirmed six confirmed cases and two still under suspicion, including three deaths. These figures indicate a fatality rate of 38% for the Andes virus, a variant of hantavirus. Among the suspected cases is a 32-year-old woman who has been admitted to the San Juan University Hospital in Alicante. She shared the plane for one hour (seated two rows behind) with the woman who died from hantavirus in Johannesburg (South Africa). The first PCR test was negative for hantavirus, so a second PCR will be performed within the next 24 hours. This patient, who resides in Playa de San Juan, still has a cough, one of the symptoms compatible with hantavirus.
Spain tracks three foreign individuals who resided in Spanish territory last year (current whereabouts unknown)
Minister García does not rule out that more suspected cases or possible contacts may appear, as the tracing of passengers from that plane that departed from the South African city continues. Spain is tracking three foreign individuals who resided in Spanish territory last year (current whereabouts unknown). These tracing efforts are taking place worldwide, with the isolation and monitoring of hundreds of people.
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Ministers García and Grande-Marlaska assure that none of the passengers and 17 crew members will disembark without first being examined by health personnel. Thirty will remain on the ship to continue the journey to the Netherlands. If there are no symptomatic individuals, the first to arrive at port will be the Spaniards and the WHO Africa representative, who will quarantine in Madrid. They will reach land by zodiac (5 people in each), all wearing masks and protective equipment (like all deployed personnel).
On land, three buses await to cover the 11 kilometers between the port and the airport. From there, to Torrejón de Ardoz, where they will be transferred to Gómez Ulla. The repatriated will leave their luggage on the ship and only carry a small bag with their essential belongings. A psychiatrist will also be waiting at the port to ensure their emotional well-being, within a device designed by the High Commissioner for Mental Health, which also includes a 24-hour telephone support service.
The repatriated will leave their luggage on the ship and only carry a small bag with their essential belongings
Repatriation flights to France, Germany, Belgium, Ireland, and the Netherlands are already scheduled from the European Union. To support those without available air means, the European Civil Protection Mechanism has provided two aircraft. Regarding non-EU nationals, repatriation flights to Great Britain, the United States, and Canada are arranged.
For those without means, the General Secretariat of Civil Protection and Emergencies is preparing a contingency plan with the Government of the Netherlands, where the Hondius is flagged, as well as with the shipowner and the insurance company.
The judiciary supports the quarantine
An investigative court in Madrid has ratified an order from the Ministry of Health notifying the quarantine measures to which Spaniards affected by the hantavirus outbreak on the Hondius cruise must submit at the Gómez Ulla Hospital in Madrid. The measures include quarantine in individual rooms in that hospital “for a period of seven calendar days from the enforcement of this order,” according to the court ruling. After seven days, Health must request judicial protection if it considers the confinement should continue. “The measure is appropriate, necessary, and suitable to control the disease and prevent its spread,” the court states, adding that the quarantine is also “proportionate to the serious, imminent, and extraordinary risk that contagion spread would pose.”
