Spain Evacuates Passengers From Hantavirus-Stricken MV Hondius in Tenerife

Spanish authorities prepared to receive more than 140 passengers and crew members from the hantavirus-stricken MV Hondius as the ship headed for the Canary Islands, with health officials planning careful evacuations in a “completely isolated, cordoned-off area,” according to Virginia Barcones.

The vessel was expected to reach the Spanish island of Tenerife early Sunday, and the World Health Organization said the risk to the wider public from the outbreak was low while confirming that a flight attendant who briefly boarded a plane with an infected cruise passenger had tested negative.

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PBS reported that the United States agreed to send a plane to repatriate its 17 citizens, while the British government said it would charter a plane to evacuate nearly two dozen British nationals onboard.

The outbreak’s death toll was described as at least three passengers dead, and PBS noted that hantavirus is usually spread by inhalation of contaminated rodent droppings and “isn’t easily transmitted between people.”

NBC News later described the same arrival in Tenerife, saying passengers started evacuating the MV Hondius shortly after it arrived off the Spanish island of Tenerife on Sunday and that the WHO said there were six passengers with confirmed cases and two with suspected cases, including three fatalities.

As the MV Hondius arrived near the Port of Granadilla in Tenerife, Spain began disembarking passengers, with the first group being Spanish nationals transported by bus to the airport and evacuated by a Spanish government plane to Madrid, according to Al Jazeera.

Al Jazeera also reported that the WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus arrived in Tenerife to coordinate the arrival of the ship and wrote in an open letter: “This is not another COVID.”

Al Jazeera

NBC News said the first passengers disembarked dressed in personal protective equipment and were taken to shore aboard a small boat before boarding buses to the airport, with the first plane carrying 14 Spanish passengers departing Tenerife for Madrid.

NBC News quoted WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus telling reporters, “The risk to the public is low,” and said passengers would be kept cordoned off from the public ahead of repatriation flights.

The evacuation plan described by CBS News involved launch boats carrying a maximum of five to 10 people, with Spanish passengers disembarking first and a Netherlands-bound flight including Germans, Belgians, Greeks and part of the crew, while the final flight was set for Monday to Australia.

After disembarkation, Spain’s Minister of Health Mónica García said passengers would be kept “asymptomatic,” and NBC News reported that the WHO recommended “active monitoring and follow-up” for all passengers and crew for 42 days from their “last point of exposure” to a confirmed case.

CBS News said the CDC was sending a team of epidemiologists and medical professionals to the Canary Islands to “conduct an exposure risk assessment for each American passenger and provide recommendations for the level of monitoring required,” and it described Americans being flown back to the U.S. to a medical center at the University of Nebraska Medical Center.

NBC News added that the 17 Americans still aboard the Hondius would be observed at the National Quarantine Unit at the University of Nebraska Medical Center campus in Omaha, and it quoted Dr. Michael Ash, CEO of Nebraska Medicine, saying, “We are prepared for situations exactly like this.”

Al Jazeera reported that thirty crew members would remain on board and sail to the Netherlands, where the ship would be disinfected, while BBC said the last evacuation flight was expected to leave for Australia on Monday.

In parallel, the BBC described Spain’s preparations including a security perimeter of one nautical mile and a strict isolation facility with one bed fully equipped to deal with infectious diseases, complete with testing kit and a ventilator, as the operation unfolded to help more than 100 passengers and crew disembark.