Less than 37 and a half hours after its anchoring at the dock of Granadilla de Abona (Tenerife), the Dutch tourist cruise ship that has kept the world on edge in the last week, has left the Canary Islands.
The MV Hondius ship where an outbreak of Andes hantavirus, which has left three dead, was detected has motivated an unprecedented international operation that took less than two days to deploy to the islands to repatriate passengers from twenty-three countries to their countries of origin. So far there are seven confirmed positive cases, according to data collected by the Reuters Agency, which does not include the three deceased.
The Government of Spain and the World Health Organization have coordinated this unprecedented operation in the Canary Islands to be able to disembark 116 passengers in record time between Sunday and Monday. After filling the tank, loading supplies, and disembarking the last twenty-two passengers this Monday, the vessel has set sail towards the Netherlands with the rest of the crew.
The operation has mobilized the Military Emergencies Unit (UME), the Civil Guard, three Spanish ministers and the Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, but also the authorities of all the countries involved.
It is not another pandemic
The images of the PPE and masks have returned the population to the recent traumas of the coronavirus pandemic. Although the psychological wounds are latent, Adhanom Ghebreyesus has recalled that this disease is known and that it has a low risk for the general population, it is not another pandemic.
On the tourist cruise traveled about 150 people, including passengers, crew and, since its departure from Cape Verde, also four epidemiologists from the Netherlands, the WHO and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC).
The Minister of Health, Mónica García, reported this Monday that 32 crew members would presumably depart at 7:00 p.m. bound for the Netherlands, aboard the MV Hondius. During a press conference from the pier itself, García indicated that a plane from the Netherlands would finally take over the remaining transfers, despite the fact that another aircraft from Australia, which would take charge of its national passengers, was initially counted on.
The head of Health added that after the ship leaves Granadilla, the pier will be disinfected following international protocols. During her speech, she thanked the nearly 400 journalists who mobilized to the pier, the people of the Canary Islands, and the Spanish people for their welcome. "We are profoundly proud of a country that is capable of carrying out an operation of these characteristics," she indicated.
A political battle that clouded the focus
Despite the media battle that the president of the Government of the Canary Islands, Fernando Clavijo (Coalición Canaria), initiated against the Government of Spain for accepting the request of the World Health Organization to carry out this landing in the Canary Islands, due to the logistical capacity of the archipelago, the operation has proceeded without incident.
Faced with criticism from Coalición Canaria, García indicated that the entire operation has been carried out following scientific protocols and in close collaboration with the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, the WHO, the other twenty-two countries involved, and the European Union. "We are not going to get into any of these controversies, the Government of Spain is focused on what it is focused on, it is focused on working," defended the minister.
The Spanish, the first to disembark
The first to disembark on the morning of this past Sunday were the fourteen Spanish citizens, all asymptomatic, who were transferred to the Air Base of Torrejón de Ardoz, in Madrid, and from there to the Gómez Ulla Hospital. In this health center dependent on the Ministry of Defense, a PCR test has been performed on them and they will carry out a first strict quarantine and their health monitoring will be carried out.
Mónica García indicated that the Spaniards were evacuated in small groups, in bubble buses from the Military Emergencies Unit, after undergoing disinfection processes and wearing personal protective equipment. The Secretary of State for Health, Javier Padilla, added in statements to RTVE that the quarantine for Spaniards will be 42 days, of which seven will be strict, and that it will begin to count from May 6.
One positive in France and another "mild" in the United States
The last passengers to leave the MV Hondius this past Sunday were the seventeen American tourists. Two of these passengers were transferred in biocontainment units out of "excessive precaution," the U.S. Executive's Department of Health and Human Services indicated early this morning.
One of the passengers presented mild symptoms of hantavirus and the country indicated another "mild positive" in the PCR test for the Andean virus. The passengers were transferred to the Nebraska Regional Center for the Treatment of Emerging Special Pathogens, while the one presenting mild symptoms went to a second center with similar characteristics.
The Spanish Secretary of State for External Health, Javier Padilla, clarified this Monday on RTVE that the passenger who tested "mildly" positive during tests on the cruise ship yielded a "non-conclusive" result, and a second test yielded a "negative." However, he added that all passengers evacuated from the MV Hondius were treated as possible positives in the precautionary evacuation protocol.
Of the passengers evacuated this past Sunday, a positive case of the Andean virus has been detected in France in one of the five repatriated passengers, who began to show symptoms on the return journey between Tenerife and the European country. As the French Minister of Health, Stéphanie Rist, stated on Radio France, this citizen is being treated in a hospital specialized in infectious diseases. Meanwhile, the rest of the repatriated French citizens will be hospitalized for at least fifteen days and will undergo further tests.
Hantavirus Traceability Studies on Two Commercial Flights
The French Health Minister also stated that twenty-two cases have been identified of possible contacts in the country of travelers who coincided with the 69-year-old Dutch woman who died of hantavirus after flying from the island of Saint Helena to Johannesburg, in South Africa, and who unsuccessfully tried to take a flight from this same city to Amsterdam.
At the same time, her counterpart in Spain, Mónica García, reported at the end of last week that during the European Union's Early Warning System tracing and notification efforts,a Spanish passenger with mild symptoms compatible with hantavirus was detected in Alicante and another contact who traveled to Barcelona and then returned to South Africa.
Start of the outbreak
The ship MV Hondius set sail from Argentina on March 20, on a route that also included continental Antarctica, the Falkland Islands, South Georgia Islands, Nightingale Island, and Tristan Island.
According to the chronology of the medical situation on board the MV Hondius disseminated by the company, the first death on board occurred on April 11, three weeks ago. The body of a Dutch passenger was disembarked thirteen days later, on April 24, in Saint Helena, a British Overseas Territory. The deceased's wife accompanied his body so that it could be repatriated. However, she also fell ill and ended up dying on April 27. The WHO confirmed that the woman suffered from a variant of hantavirus.
On April 27, the third passenger, this time British, who was evacuated to South Africa, fell ill, where he was admitted to the intensive care unit in critical condition. This patient was diagnosed with a hantavirus variant. Another confirmed case of the disease.
On May 2nd, a third passenger, of German nationality, passed away. Oceanwide has reported that the vessel is at level 3, the highest response level, and that isolation measures, hygiene protocols, and medical monitoring are being carried out on board.
The MV Hondius tried on May 4th, exactly one week ago, to disembark unsuccessfully in Cape Verde. After evacuating three passengers with hantavirus symptoms by medical plane, it set course for the Canary Islands.
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