Hantavirus ship evacuation: 94 flown home

GRANADILLA DE ABONA, Spain (AFP) — A complex day-long operation to repatriate occupants of a cruise ship struck by a deadly hantavirus outbreak neared completion late Sunday after 94 people of various nationalities were flown home from Spain’s Canary Islands.

The evacuees are from 19 different countries, Spanish Health Minister Monica Garcia announced on the island of Tenerife after what she called a “pretty intense” day.

Spanish officials said the evacuation of most of the ship’s nearly 150 passengers and crew, which include 23 nationalities, would continue until the final repatriation flights to Australia and the Netherlands on Monday afternoon.

The ship will refuel in the morning and is expected to depart for the Netherlands with around 30 crew at 7 p.m. on Monday.

On Sunday, passengers wearing blue medical suits began disembarking the Dutch-flagged vessel onto smaller boats to reach the small industrial port of Granadilla on Tenerife, Agence France-Presse (AFP) journalists saw.

The evacuees then boarded Spanish army buses and traveled to Tenerife South airport in a convoy, with a protective board separating the driver from the passengers.

The evacuees changed into new protective equipment before boarding their repatriation flights.

“Everything is going well,” French evacuee Roland Seitre told AFP just before taking off, saying “everyone was great” during the disembarkation.

Three passengers from the MV Hondius — a Dutch husband and wife and a German woman — have died, while others have fallen sick with the rare disease, which usually spreads among rodents.

No vaccines or specific treatments exist for hantavirus, which is endemic in Argentina, where the ship departed in April.

But health officials have stressed that the risk for global public health is low and played down comparisons to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Race against time

A plane arrived in the Netherlands with dozens of people, including Belgian, Greek, German, Guatemalan and Argentine citizens, while flights for Canadian, Turkish, British, Irish and US nationals also left.

Canary Islands authorities have warned that the operation must be completed by Monday, when adverse weather conditions will force the ship to leave.

The Atlantic archipelago’s regional government has consistently resisted taking in the ship, which was only authorised to anchor offshore instead of docking in the port when it arrived early on Sunday morning.