WHO points reassurance to Spanish folks as hantavirus cruise ship approaches
The MV Hondius will arrive in the Canary Islands on Sunday, where evacuation efforts will begin for the remaining 140 passengers and crew on board
The MV Hondius has been at the centre of an international health scare since last Saturday(Image: AFP via Getty Images)
The chief of the World Health Organisation has issued a statement to calm inhabitants of the Spanish island where travellers from a hantavirus-affected cruise vessel are set to be evacuated.
The Dutch-registered MV Hondius, carrying more than 140 passengers and crew members, is sailing towards Spain’s Canary Islands, located off West Africa’s coast, and is anticipated to reach Tenerife this morning.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus landed on Saturday at the island, where he, alongside Spain’s Health Minister Monica Garcia and Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska, intended to oversee the disembarkation of travellers and selected crew members.
“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 declared in a statement addressed to Tenerife’s residents.
“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 continued, reports the Mirror.
WHO, Spanish officials and cruise operator Oceanwide Expeditions confirmed that no one aboard the Hondius is presently displaying signs of the virus. Hantavirus can trigger life-threatening conditions.
It typically spreads when individuals breathe in contaminated particles from rodent droppings and doesn’t easily pass between humans.
However, the Andes virus identified in the cruise ship outbreak might potentially transmit between people in exceptional circumstances.
Signs generally appear between one and eight weeks following exposure.
Three individuals have perished since the outbreak began, while five passengers who disembarked are carrying hantavirus.
Some Tenerife locals express reluctance about the vessel’s presence there.
Certain Tenerife residents have voiced anxiety.
Aboard the cruise liner, some Spanish travellers have expressed worry about facing discrimination.
“I tell you, I don’t like this very much,” remarked 69-year-old local 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 mentioned they sympathised with the vessel’s passengers, while remaining apprehensive.
“The truth is that it is very worrying,” stated 27-year-old Venezuelan immigrant Samantha Aguero.
She continued: “We feel a bit unsafe, we don’t feel as there are 100% 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.”
Travellers may only take minimal possessions and face isolation.
Garcia confirmed passengers and certain crew members would come ashore in Tenerife “under maximum safety conditions.” The vessel will not berth but will stay at anchor, with passengers transported ashore in smaller craft.
Everyone leaving will be screened for symptoms and won’t be removed from the ship until a flight is already waiting for them in Tenerife, Garcia announced during a press briefing in Madrid.
There are presently people of more than 20 different nationalities aboard.
Officials are targeting to finish the evacuation flights on Sunday and Monday, the director of the WHO’s Department of Epidemic and Pandemic Management, Maria Van Kerkove, stated in a briefing Saturday.
Both the U.S. and the U.K. have consented to dispatch aircraft to evacuate their nationals.
Americans are to be quarantined at a medical centre in Nebraska.
All Spanish travellers will be moved to a medical facility and quarantined, Garcia stated.
Oceanwide has recorded 13 Spanish passengers and one Spanish crew member aboard.
Those leaving will abandon their luggage, Garcia stated, and will be permitted to carry only a small bag containing essential items, a mobile phone, charger and documentation.
Some crew, along with the body of a passenger who perished aboard, will stay on the vessel, which will continue to the Netherlands, where it will undergo disinfection, the minister added.
