The luxury cruise ship MV Hondius, which was hit by a hantavirus outbreak, left the Spanish island of Tenerife for the Netherlands on Monday after the final six passengers and several crew members were evacuated from the vessel.
The Outbreak
The polar expedition ship carrying the remaining passengers – four Australians, one Briton who lives in Australia and a New Zealander – docked briefly at the port of Granadilla de Abona, allowing them, 19 crew and two doctors to disembark. It then sailed on for the Netherlands with 25 crew as well as a doctor and a nurse.
The passengers and staff evacuated in Tenerife boarded buses that took them to the local airport where they were transferred to two airplanes bound for the Netherlands, the Dutch Foreign Ministry said.
“Mission accomplished; we’ve just wrapped up the operation and the ship has just set sail,” Spanish Health Minister Monica Garcia said.
The crew will complete their quarantine in the Netherlands, the Dutch Foreign Ministry said. The plane carrying the passengers will continue to Australia and it was up to the Australian government to determine where they would quarantine, Garcia said.
Protecting Public
The disembarkation caps a complex operation that has so far resulted in 94 people being evacuated and repatriated to their countries of residence, 41 days after the MV Hondius set off from southern Argentina and nine days after the first positive test result for the respiratory viral infection.
Three people – a Dutch couple and a German national – have died since the start of the outbreak on the ship of the virus, which is usually spread by wild rodents but can also be transmitted person-to-person in rare cases of close contact.
By evacuating the ship in Tenerife rather than obliging passengers to quarantine onboard, authorities sought to strike a balance between protecting public safety and preserving the mental health of the passengers, World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a press conference in Tenerife.
Little Risk To General Public
Health officials say that because the virus does not spread easily between people, there is little risk to the general public, urging calm to a public scarred by the experience of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The MV Hondius had been carrying 147 passengers and crew from 23 countries when a cluster of severe respiratory illnesses among passengers was first reported to the WHO on May 2.
(With inputs from Reuters)
