The last six passengers and some crew members of the hantavirus-hit MV Hondius left the ship on the Spanish island of Tenerife on May 11 as its captain praised their patience and discipline during an “extremely challenging” few weeks.
Strong winds forced the polar expedition ship carrying the remaining passengers – four Australians, one Briton who lives in Australia and a New Zealander – to dock briefly at the port of Granadilla de Abona to allow them to disembark safely and board a flight to the Netherlands, where they will spend time in quarantine, Spain’s health ministry said.
Nineteen crew members from the ship and three doctors who treated them were due to take off for the Netherlands on a separate flight, the Dutch Foreign Ministry said.
The MV Hondius was then due to continue its journey with 26 crew members to the Netherlands – its flag state – where it would be disinfected, health authorities said.
“I could not imagine sailing through these circumstances with a better group of people, guests and crew alike,” Captain Jan Dobrogowski, from the Netherlands, said in a video posted on Oceanwide Expeditions’ website.
In a video posted on the website, Captain Jan Dobrogowski of MV Hondius praised the passengers and crew members’ patience and discipline during an “extremely challenging” few weeks.
PHOTO: SCREENGRAB FROM OCEANWIDE-EXPEDITIONS.COM
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 of the virus, which is usually spread by wild rodents but also transmittable person-to-person in rare cases of close contact.
The World Health Organization said on May 11 there were now seven confirmed cases of the Andes strain of hantavirus, and two other suspected cases – one who died before being tested, and one on Tristan da Cunha, a remote South Atlantic island where there were no tests available.
The confirmed cases include a French passenger, who tested positive after the ship docked in the Canary Islands on May 10.
Her condition was deteriorating, French Health Minister Stephanie Rist said. The US Department of Health and Human Services said one of the 17 Americans being repatriated had also tested mildly positive for the Andes virus. The Spanish Health Ministry said a test of another sample from the American at a different lab had been inconclusive.
A second American also had mild symptoms.
US President Donald Trump said he was satisfied with his country’s handling of the outbreak.
“It looks like it’s just a disease that we’ve had around in a very small way for a long time. Not a good one to catch, because, you know, it’s a very severe disease if you catch it, but it’s very hard to catch,” Mr Trump told reporters in the White House on May 11.
As the MV Hondius approached the Canary Islands late last week – despite protests from the regional government about the risk of the virus spreading – Spain’s health minister and the WHO said all passengers were “asymptomatic”.
Results of tests on 14 Spanish passengers currently quarantining at a military hospital in Madrid were due later on May 11, the country’s Health Ministry added.
However, 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 from 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 3.
By then, 34 other passengers had disembarked on islands in the Atlantic before the cruise ship headed north to Cape Verde, where news of the outbreak emerged.
It was first detected by health officials in Johannesburg on May 2 treating a British man who had disembarked the ship. That was some three weeks after the first passenger, a Dutchman, had died. The luxury cruise ship left for Spain’s Canary Islands on May 6 after Madrid had accepted a WHO request to manage its evacuation.
The WHO has recommended a 42-day quarantine for all passengers, its director of epidemic and pandemic management, Maria Van Kerkhove, told a briefing.
The outbreak was under control, Dr Gianfranco Spiteri, emergencies lead at the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, told Reuters.
“People should also put their minds at rest that the situation is under control. We know the virus. We can prevent further onward transmission. We’re not expecting a new pandemic from this,” he said. REUTERS
