The first group of passengers of the cruise ship hit by the hantavirus outbreak began disembarking into small boats on Sunday. The boat, consisting of all Spanish nationals, is headed to Tenerife’s Port of Granadilla, from where they will be taken to a hospital in Madrid.
The evacuation process comes after the cruise ship MV Hondius was hit by an outbreak of Hantavirus, which spreads through urine and droppings of infected rodents, and is rarely transmitted between people.
The Dutch-flagged MV Hondius arrived at the small industrial port of Granadilla on Tenerife early on Sunday.
What will happen to the passengers?
At the start of the evacuation, 14 Spanish passengers were the first to disembark, in groups of five, and were taken to the shore.
From there, the passengers will be taken to the shore, where they will board buses and be taken to the local airport.
The passengers will board a flight back to Madrid on a Spanish military plane, government officials reportedly said, emphasising that they will have no contact with members of the public.
In Madrid, they will be taken to the hospital and quarantined for further medical checkups.
Boat cleared final checks
According to Spain’s Health Ministry, the cruise ship cleared all appropriate health checks before being anchored near Tenerife on Sunday. Health officials boarded the ships to conduct these final checks.
Spain’s health minister, Mónica García, also informed that the external health team found 140 people on board to be asymptomatic. A report of the MV Hondius said that the hygiene and environmental conditions are appropriate on the ship and that they did not detect rodents, “so transmission by exposure to rodents on board is not likely,” Reuters quoted the report as saying.
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The ship left for Spain on Wednesday from the coast of Cape Verde after the World Health Organisation (WHO) and European Union asked the country to manage the evacuation of passengers after the hantavirus outbreak was detected.
At least three passengers have died, and several other people who left the ship have been infected. All passengers on the luxury cruise ship are considered high-risk contacts, Europe’s public health agency said earlier on Saturday.
Due to the high-risk situation, the ship was only authorised to anchor offshore instead of docking in the port. There are people of more than 20 different nationalities on board, AFP reported.
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What about passengers from other countries
After Spain, passengers from the Netherlands will be the next group to leave the vessel. Their plane will also transport passengers from Germany, Belgium and Greece, Spain’s health minister confirmed.
Following this, passengers from Turkey, France, the UK and the US will be evacuated. No passenger will leave the boat until their allocated evacuation plane has arrived.
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Health minister García also informed that the final flight will be from Australia, adding that this will be the most complex flight, picking up six people from Australia, New Zealand and other Asian countries. “The flight is scheduled to arrive tomorrow afternoon,” Garcia said.
Thirty crew members will remain on board and sail to the Netherlands, where the ship will be disinfected.
(With inputs from agencies)
