‘It was either this or the pool’: hantavirus ship becomes latest Tenerife tourist attraction | Hantavirus

On a dusty hill overlooking the Atlantic Ocean in the south of Tenerife, groups of tourists and locals gather to witness one of the island’s best new attractions.

While some peered through binoculars, others took photos on their phones of a ship docked just a few hundred meters away, near the commercial port of Granadillo.

This is the MV Hondius, the small cruise ship at the center of a giant global turmoil.

Dubbed the “mouse virus boat” by the internet after three people traveling on the ship died of hantavirus, a disease normally carried by rats and mice, the story of this ship has fascinated people all over the world.

And now, after reaching the Canary Islands shortly before dawn on Sunday, the ship is finally being evacuated, bringing the ordeal of the remaining 149 passengers and crew to an end.

The scene is viewed from the rental car of Amy Byres and Emma Armitage, from Sheffield, who are on holiday in Tenerife for Byres’ 22nd birthday.

“We’ve got some time to kill before our next flight,” Armitage said.

“It was either this or we lay by the pool all day,” Byres added.

The duo said they spent their holidays between whale watching and quad biking activities, fascinated by the story of passengers stranded on the ship and imprisoned in cabins.

“We saw this at the beginning of our journey, came on Monday and followed it on TikTok all week,” Byres said. “We were looking on TikTok trying to find where it was, then we saw the name of the port and ended up here. Really interesting, isn’t it?”

This innovation attracted dozens of people who came to the island to enjoy the sun, sand and fun. cerveza (beer) – and remained there for the international rescue operation.

But on the pier the mood is more sober. First, only a handful of Spanish passengers appear, looking dazed and confused, covering their faces and hair and wearing large blue ponchos over their clothes.

Small plastic bags containing only a few items are held in one hand. The rest of their luggage must remain on the ship to be taken to the Netherlands for disinfection.

After the deaths of a Dutch couple and a German passenger, many of them are coming out for the first time since they were locked in their cabins a few days ago.

It took some time to diagnose the cause as hantavirus. Although the disease is not uncommon, it rarely spreads from person to person. The variant is not new, and health agencies are trying to reassure people that it is a known pathogen and not a new disease like Covid-19.

There are few parallels to the virus that caused the global pandemic in 2019, but people around the world fear what will happen if another disease spirals out of control.

Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the World Health Organization (WHO), repeated the refrain dozens of times that the outbreak “was not the beginning of the Covid epidemic” until the 24-hour evacuation period in Tenerife.

Passengers and crew from 23 countries are being repatriated thanks to a massive international effort led by the World Health Organization and coordinated by the Spanish government, which has offered Tenerife as a base to launch rescue efforts.

It was Spain’s obligation under international law to provide aid to the Canary Islands, one of the closest regions with the resources to help, and Sunday appeared to have successfully implemented the plan.

Boatloads of blue plastic figures appeared to be loaded onto buses by healthcare workers wearing hazmat suits and face masks.

Inside, plastic sheets cover the seats and, in scenes reminiscent of the Covid-19 pandemic, hazard tape marks unusable seats. Those leaving the ship are not allowed to sit next to each other.

However, what happens when each traveler reaches home is a matter of debate. Although WHO recommends that every traveler isolate for 45 days from the last point of contact on May 6, it cannot enforce this. England and Spain imposed hospital quarantine for those disembarking, but many countries did not.

The lack of testing causes further concern. Those on board had their temperatures taken by WHO tropical medicine doctors and showed no signs of possible infection. However, only a PCR test can confirm whether hantavirus, which has an incubation period of up to eight weeks, is present in their system. Each country must make its own implementation.

Among the press members brought to the island with the arrival of MV Hondius, questions were asked whether this was enough.

At a news conference at the port of Granadilla late Saturday night, Tedros was asked whether allowing passengers to travel around the world and relying on them to self-isolate with no supervision could cause more outbreaks.

“According to our assessment, what you said will not happen,” he told the media.

The US’s planned approach has caused particular alarm following the country’s withdrawal from the WHO last year. Travelers returning to the country are asked to self-isolate; An American journalist asked Javier Padilla Bernáldez, Spain’s secretary of state for health, his opinion on this matter.

He said the European Commission and the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control were “trying to ensure a certain level of coordination, not high differences between different countries.”

“But every country has its own confidence,” he said.