Spanish authorities are finalizing preparations for the arrival of the MV Hondius this weekend, describing an "unprecedented operation" to receive, assess, and repatriate the 149 passengers and crew members on board the hantavirus-stricken cruise ship. The Dutch-flagged vessel, which was sailing from Argentina to Cape Verde, is due to arrive off Tenerife in the Canary Islands at around midday on Sunday.
Ship Will Not Dock in Tenerife
After negotiations between the Spanish government and the archipelago's regional authorities, the MV Hondius will remain at anchor in the port of Granadilla and will not dock in Tenerife. Passengers will be evaluated on board and will have no contact with the local population when they are taken from the ship to be repatriated or, in the case of the 14 Spanish nationals on board, transported to a military hospital in Madrid for quarantine.
"This is an unprecedented operation in response to an international health alert involving 23 countries," Spain's health minister, Mónica García, told Spain's state radio broadcaster RNE on Friday morning. "We're coordinating this from Spain, and the World Health Organization has entrusted Spain with this operation – which, as I've said, is unprecedented. We're going to do what we have to do, which is work and deliver the necessary health and logistical management."
Evacuation Plans for Non-Spanish Citizens
García confirmed that non-Spanish citizens who do not need urgent medical attention will be evacuated to their home countries even if they show symptoms of hantavirus, which has killed three people on the ship. "If they show symptoms but don't need urgent medical attention, they will be evacuated with their respective health workers to their respective countries," she said. "The international protocols will be followed – as will all the strict measures when it comes to health prevention. The protocol is based on no one needing urgent medical attention. And we think that won't be the case because everyone was asymptomatic when they left Cape Verde, and they've been on the boat for many days now, which makes us think that the risk that they've been infected is diminishing each day."
WHO: Minimal Public Risk
The WHO said on Friday that the risk the hantavirus strain in question poses to the public is minimal, as it spreads only through "very close contact." To date, the organisation has registered five confirmed cases and three suspected cases. "This is a dangerous virus, but only to the person who's really infected, and the risk to the general population remains absolutely low," a WHO spokesperson, Christian Lindmeier, told a press briefing in Geneva. He said that even people who stayed in the same cabin as an infected person on the MV Hondius "don't seem to be both infected in some cases." Lindmeier said the disease was "not spreading anything close to how Covid was spreading" and that contact tracing is effective "because it traces those who have been in close contact."
International Repatriation Efforts
The UK and the US are among the countries that have agreed to send planes to Tenerife to repatriate their citizens. Health authorities across four continents are scrambling to track down and monitor passengers who left the ship before the deadly outbreak was detected. They are also trying to trace others who may have come into contact with them since then. On 24 April, nearly two weeks after the first passenger had died on board, more than two dozen people from at least 12 different countries left the ship without contact tracing, the ship's operator and Dutch officials said on Thursday. According to the WHO, health authorities did not confirm hantavirus in a passenger on the MV Hondius until 2 May.
Local Concerns and Objections
The looming arrival of the cruise ship has prompted considerable unease in Tenerife. Fernando Clavijo, the regional president of the Canary Islands, had objected to the ship coming into port at Granadilla and convinced the central government that it should instead remain at anchor. In an interview with the Spanish newspaper ABC on Friday, he said Spain had been under no legal requirement to take in the ship and that it should have put into port in Cape Verde, which refused it permission to dock. "We continue to maintain that Spain had no legal obligation to receive that ship and that the operation now being deployed here could have been perfectly organised in Cape Verde," he said. "We still argue that this could have been resolved earlier, without the need for a three- or four-day voyage."
Speaking later on Friday, Clavijo said a plan had been devised to minimise the time and contacts that the passengers being evacuated would have while on Tenerife. He added that the foreign nationals would be taken off the ship and put straight into vehicles bound for waiting planes. "We know with certainty that no one will get off the ship if their plane is not already waiting on the runway," he said.
Local Government Opposition
The town council of Granadilla de Abona, where the port of Granadilla is located, has also taken issue with the central government's decision. "Granadilla de Abona is a committed and supportive municipality, ready to collaborate in any health emergency," it said in a statement. "However ... decisions directly affecting their municipality cannot be made unilaterally or without the involvement of the local government. The willingness to collaborate must be accompanied by sound health criteria and proper planning, especially when the safety and wellbeing of our residents are at stake."
