Passengers Evacuated From Hantavirus-Stricken Cruise Ship Begin Flying Home From Canary Islands

TENERIFE, Canary Islands (AP) — Passengers evacuated Cruise ship hit by hantavirus After the ship docked in the Canary Islands, military and government aircraft began flying back to their countries on Sunday, with passengers escorted to shore by personnel wearing full-body protective suits and respiratory masks.

Spanish passengers were the first to leave after the MV Hondius arrived at Tenerife, the largest island in the Spanish archipelago off the West African coast. They were then flown to Madrid and taken to a military hospital. Hours later, a plane evacuating French passengers landed in Paris and was met there by emergency vehicles.

French Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu said in a statement that one in five French passengers showed symptoms during the flight and all were subject to strict isolation with testing plans.

Previously, officials from the Spanish Ministry of Health, the World Health Organization and cruise line Oceanwide Expeditions had said none of the more than 140 people aboard Hondius at the time had been exposed. symptoms shown of the virus.

The planes arriving in Tenerife would carry passengers from more than 20 countries. Evacuations are expected to continue until Monday.

Three people have died since the outbreak began, and five passengers who left the ship earlier have died. infected with hantavirus.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus reiterated that the public should not worry about the epidemic.

“We repeated the same answer over and over again,” he said. “This is not another Covid-19. The risk to the public is also low. So they should not be afraid and panic.”

Despite this, those disembarking and staff working in the port of Granadilla in Tenerife wore protective clothing, including hazmat suits, face masks and respirators, during the evacuation process. In the video obtained by The Associated Press, passengers on the tarmac can be seen wearing similar clothing and being sprayed with disinfectant.

Another WHO official said the passengers were relieved to be heading to their home countries.

“It was great to see all the buses leaving and people being really happy to get back on land and be repatriated,” said Diana Rojas Alvarez, WHO health operations leader in Tenerife.

Passengers and crew who disembark the plane will be checked for symptoms and will be prohibited from having any contact with local residents, officials said. They will only be removed from the ship when evacuation flights are ready. Tedros and Spain’s health and interior ministers are overseeing the operation in Tenerife.

Hantavirus is usually spread when: people breathe in contaminated residue rodent feces and that the disease is not easily transmitted between humans. However Andean virus The epidemic detected on a cruise ship can spread among people in rare cases. Symptoms usually appear one to eight weeks after exposure.

Passengers and crew members who disembarked left their luggage behind and were only allowed to take with them a small bag containing essentials, a mobile phone, a charger and documents.

Spanish officials said some of the crew and the body of a passenger who died on board will remain on the ship, which will sail to Rotterdam, the Netherlands, where it will be disinfected.

The cruise line said the journey to Rotterdam takes about five days.

Van Kerkhove said the WHO recommends “active monitoring and follow-up, i.e. daily health checks at home or at a private facility” in travelers’ home countries.

“We leave this to the countries themselves to develop their own policies,” he added. “But our recommendations are very clear and this is a really prudent approach to making sure there is no chance of this virus being passed on to others.”

Many countries have said their people will be quarantined or hospitalized for observation. For example, the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs had previously announced that its passengers would be hospitalized for 72 hours of observation and then quarantined at home for 45 days.

After the passenger arrived at the hospital with symptoms, the prime minister said the five people would be kept in hospital “until further orders”.

Americans on board will be quarantined at a medical center in Nebraska. British officials said that passengers and crew coming from England would be hospitalized for observation.

Spain’s Health Minister Mónica García said Australia would send a plane expected to arrive on Monday to evacuate its people and those from nearby countries such as New Zealand and unspecified Asian countries, adding that the evacuation flight was expected to be the last to leave Tenerife.

Norway has sent an ambulance plane with trained personnel to transport patients with high-risk infections to the island, the Civil Protection Directorate told public broadcaster NRK.

Elsewhere, British Army medics parachuted into the remote South Atlantic region of Tristan da Cunha; Here, one in 221 residents had suspected hantavirus.

The patient was a passenger on the MV Hondius and disembarked last month.

A team of six paratroopers and two medical clinicians jumped from a Royal Air Force transport plane on Saturday, which also dropped oxygen and medical equipment, Britain’s Ministry of Defense said.

Tristan da Cunha is Britain’s most remote inhabited overseas territory, with the nearest inhabited island being St. It is approximately 1,500 miles (2,400 kilometers) from Helena. The volcanic island group has no airstrip and can generally only be reached by a six-day boat trip from Cape Town, South Africa.

Meanwhile, a Spanish woman suspected of being infected in the southeastern province of Alicante has tested negative for hantavirus, Spanish health officials said on Saturday.

The woman was a passenger on the same plane as the Dutch woman who died in Johannesburg after traveling on a cruise ship.

Naishadham reported from Madrid. Associated Press writers Angela Charlton in Paris, Jill Lawless in London and Kirsten Grieshaber in Berlin contributed to this report.