Hantavirus cruise ship evacuations under way in Spain’s Canary Islands

Passengers from the cruise ship infected with hantavirus have been flown home on board military and government aircraft after the vessel arrived in Tenerife in the Canary Islands.

Three people died in the outbreak on board the Hondius since it left South America on April 1.

After being stranded at sea for weeks, the stricken vessel was allowed to anchor in the port of Granadilla de Abona, which is close to Tenerife Sur airport.

Spanish nationals were the first to leave and were flown to Madrid to begin their quarantine, Spanish health authorities said.

The cruise operator Oceanwide Expeditions listed 13 Spanish passengers, and one Spanish crew member on board the Dutch-flagged vessel.

Following the Spaniards, a Canadian flight departed, followed by a Dutch-chartered aircraft carrying passengers from the Netherlands, Germany, Belgium and Greece. Later, passengers from Turkiye, France, Britain and the United States were flown home.

In France, five returning passengers were transferred by ambulance to Bichat hospital in Paris. French Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu said one of the five had developed symptoms during the repatriation flight. All five had been placed in strict isolation, with 72 hours of hospitalisation to be followed by 45 days of home quarantine.

Twenty Britons boarded a repatriation flight to Manchester and were taken to Arrowe Park Hospital near Liverpool. It was used as Britain’s initial COVID quarantine site for observation and testing. The cruise ship passengers face 45 days of self-isolation and are barred from using public transport once released, according to the Press Association.

Evacuated US citizens will be quarantined at a medical centre in Nebraska.

“The last flight for this operation is leaving from Australia,” Spanish Health Minister Monica Garcia said. “It is the most complex flight and is scheduled to arrive tomorrow afternoon,” for passengers from Australia, New Zealand and several Asian countries.

The ship headed to Tenerife on Wednesday from Cape Verde in the Atlantic after the World Health Organization (WHO) and the European Union asked Spain to manage the evacuation of its passengers.

Those disembarking and personnel working at the port wore protective gear, including face masks, hazmat suits and respirators. Videos showed passengers being sprayed with disinfectant before boarding their aircraft.

“The principal challenge is reassuring the population and the politicians that this is an extraordinary situation but a routine procedure in terms of guaranteeing the health of individuals who have been in contact with the disease,” said Quique Bassat Orellana of the Barcelona Institute of Global Health.

“There is nothing extraordinary except the magnitude of the operation because it involves a large number of individuals from a large number of countries from all over the world,” he told Al Jazeera from Barcelona.

‘Not another COVID’

Hantavirus is usually spread by rodents, but in rare cases, it can be transmitted person-to-person.

The WHO estimated there are 10,000 to 100,000 hantavirus infections annually. Argentina has the highest number of cases in the Americas, with a fatality rate of 32 percent – higher than the average for other strains of the virus.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus arrived in Tenerife on Saturday evening, along with Spain’s ministers of health, interior and territorial policy to coordinate the ship’s arrival.

Thanking Tenerife residents for their solidarity, Tedros assured them the risk from the ship was low.

“I need you to hear me clearly,” he wrote in an open letter to the people of Tenerife. “This is not another COVID.”

WHO’s epidemic and pandemic preparedness and prevention director, Maria Van Kerkhove, said that while everybody on board would be classified as “a high-risk contact”, the risk to the general public and Canary islanders remained low.

Tracking the wider outbreak

The evacuation operation in Tenerife is only part of a broader containment effort stretching across several continents. Health authorities have been racing to locate and monitor dozens of passengers who disembarked before the outbreak was formally identified on May 2.

In one of the more dramatic interventions, British Army medics parachuted onto the island of Tristan da Cunha in the South Atlantic. It does not have an airport and a former passenger living there developed suspected symptoms. Six paratroopers and two medical clinicians jumped from an RAF transport plane, which dropped oxygen supplies and equipment. The Ministry of Defence (MoD) said it was the first time medical personnel had been parachuted in to provide humanitarian support.

Once the evacuation operation is complete, the Hondius is due to sail to Rotterdam in the Netherlands with a skeleton crew, a Dutch nurse, and the body of a passenger who died on board. The voyage is expected to take around five days before the ship is fully disinfected.