- The MV Hondius cruise ship, affected by the hantavirus, is set to be received by Spanish authorities on Sunday.
- Both the U.S. and the U.K. have committed to sending planes to evacuate their citizens from the cruise ship.
- The World Health Organization maintains that the risk to the general public from the outbreak remains low.
MADRID — As we approach the weekend, Spanish authorities are gearing up to welcome over 140 passengers and crew members from the hantavirus-affected cruise ship, which is en route to the Canary Islands. Health officials have planned meticulous evacuations upon the ship’s arrival.
The ship is scheduled to dock on Sunday at the Spanish island of Tenerife, located off the coast of West Africa. Passengers will be transported to a “fully isolated, cordoned-off area,” according to Virginia Barcones, the head of Spain’s emergency services.
Both the U.S. and the U.K. have pledged to dispatch planes to evacuate their citizens from the cruise ship.
Despite three fatalities since the outbreak and five passengers known to be infected with hantavirus, Oceanwide Expeditions, the cruise operator, announced on Friday that there are no individuals exhibiting symptoms of potential infection on board the Dutch-flagged ship, the MV Hondius.
The World Health Organization continues to assert that the risk to the general public from the outbreak is low.
On Friday, the WHO confirmed that a flight attendant, who briefly came into contact with an infected cruise passenger, has tested negative for hantavirus. This development should alleviate public concerns about the virus’ potential transmissibility, said Christian Lindmeier, a WHO spokesman. “The risk remains absolutely low,” he emphasized. “This is not a new COVID.”
Hantavirus is typically spread through the inhalation of contaminated rodent droppings and is not easily transmitted between humans. However, the Andes virus, identified in the cruise ship outbreak, may be capable of human-to-human transmission in rare instances. Symptoms usually appear between one and eight weeks following exposure.
Health authorities across four continents are working to locate and monitor over two dozen passengers who disembarked the ship before the deadly outbreak was detected. Efforts are also underway to trace others who may have come into contact with them.
Concerns Among Passengers on the Ship
In conversations with the Associated Press, two Spanish passengers — who requested anonymity due to fears of social ostracism upon their return — shared that despite the outbreak, life on board has been relatively peaceful. Some passengers are bird-watching, while others are congregating in common areas for reading or attending talks, all while adhering to mask-wearing and social distancing protocols. Both passengers expressed concerns about how they will be perceived in Spain and upon their return home.
“We’re apprehensive about the news that’s emerging, about how people will react to us, about how we’re perceived,” one passenger shared. “We’re just ordinary people. We’ve heard rumors that this is a cruise for millionaires, which couldn’t be further from the truth. And this scares us.”
Officials have been working to reassure the public in the Canary Islands about potential exposure to the virus among the general population.
Once the ship docks in Tenerife, passengers will be evacuated in small boats to buses only after their repatriation flights are ready for departure, Spanish officials announced on Friday. Passengers will be transported in isolated and guarded vehicles, and the airport sections they pass through will be cordoned off.
Efforts to Trace Passengers Who Disembarked
On April 24, nearly two weeks after the first passenger had died on board, more than two dozen individuals from at least 12 different countries disembarked the ship without any contact tracing, according to Dutch officials and the ship’s operator.
It wasn’t until May 2 that health authorities first confirmed a case of hantavirus in a ship passenger, the WHO reported.
The KLM flight attendant who tested negative for the virus was working on a flight from Johannesburg to Amsterdam on April 25 and subsequently fell ill.
The cruise passenger who briefly boarded that flight — a Dutch woman whose husband died on the ship — was too ill to continue on the international flight to Europe and was taken off the plane in Johannesburg, where she later passed away.
The Dutch public health service is currently conducting contact tracing on passengers who had contact with the ill woman before she disembarked the plane.
On Friday, U.K. health authorities reported that a third British national, who had been a passenger on the ship, is suspected of being infected with hantavirus. The U.K. Health Security Agency stated that the individual is on the island of Tristan da Cunha, a remote British overseas territory in the south Atlantic where the ship made a stop in April. The person’s condition has not been disclosed.
“The risk remains absolutely low. This is not a new COVID.”
–Christian Lindmeier, World Health Organization spokesperson
Spanish health officials announced on Friday that a woman in the southeastern Spanish province of Alicante, who exhibits symptoms consistent with a hantavirus infection, is currently being tested.
She was a passenger on the same flight as the Dutch woman who died in Johannesburg after traveling on the cruise ship, Secretary of State for Health Javier Padilla informed reporters.
Several state officials across the U.S. reported that they are monitoring a small number of residents who were on the ship and have since returned home, as well as individuals who may have come into contact with ship passengers. None of these individuals have shown symptoms.
Plans for American Passengers by U.S. Health Officials
The U.S. has agreed to send a plane to repatriate approximately 17 Americans who remain on the ship, including at least one from Utah. These passengers will be quarantined at the National Quarantine Unit at the University of Nebraska Medical Center and Nebraska Medicine, the hospital announced on Friday. None of these passengers have shown symptoms.
Doctors will decide the duration of the quarantine after assessing the passengers.
The dedicated biocontainment and quarantine unit in Omaha has previously been used to treat Ebola patients and some of the first COVID-19 patients. Nebraska Medicine is one of a few hospitals in the U.S. with specialized treatment units for individuals with highly dangerous infectious diseases.
“We are prepared for situations exactly like this,” Dr. Michael Ash, CEO of Nebraska Medicine, stated.
The British government has announced that it will charter a plane to evacuate the nearly two dozen British nationals onboard.
The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.
Agree – Safety first, better to be cautious in these situations.
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