Hantavirus repatriation flights lands in UK after evacuation from cruise ship | UK | News
British people evacuated from the cruise ship hit by the hantavirus epidemic arrived in England after being sent back to their country from Tenerife. A chartered Titan Airways flight carried passengers from the Canary Islands and landed at Manchester Airport on Sunday evening.
20 British passengers who were tested for hantavirus before boarding the flight will be isolated in England’s first Covid quarantine area at Arrowe Park Hospital on the Wirral. MV Hondius arrived in Tenerife on Sunday morning; Spanish authorities began evacuating the cruise ship by nationality and transported the passengers to a port in a small boat.
As they were taken from the port of Granadilla de Abona to Tenerife South Airport, some British passengers waved and gave thumbs up as they passed by the media.
Passengers were told to leave their luggage on board and were only allowed to take a small bag with essential items such as a phone and passport.
Spanish authorities said on Sunday that none of the passengers on the ship showed symptoms of the virus, and that 14 Spanish citizens, who constituted the first group to be taken off the ship, were taken to a hospital in Madrid.
Upon return to the UK, passengers will be housed and provided with clothing in an accommodation block in the Arrowe Park area, away from public areas of the hospital, to undergo clinical assessment and testing as a precautionary measure.
Blue-covered fences were erected around the accommodation blocks of the hospital, which is being used as the UK’s first Covid quarantine area, on Sunday morning.
They added that the NHS trust and the hospital were “operating as normal” without any risk to patients, visitors or staff and that “people should continue to come forward for care as usual”.
After the isolations, public health experts will evaluate whether the passengers can isolate at home or in another suitable place, based on their living arrangements.
Britons returning to the UK will self-isolate for 45 days and will not be allowed to travel home by public transport.
