Passengers from the United Kingdom who are aboard the hantavirus-affected cruise ship currently heading for Tenerife will be flown to Merseyside on Sunday for hospital quarantine. The 19 British passengers and three crew members will be transferred to Arrowe Park Hospital in Wirral, a facility that previously hosted British returnees from China at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Screening and Transfer Plans
All 146 passengers of the MV Hondius, where an outbreak has resulted in three deaths and sparked an international health scare, will undergo screening for the infection in Tenerife on Sunday morning before being repatriated to their home countries. The polar cruise ship is en route to the Canary Islands after spending several days stranded off the coast of Praia, the capital of Cape Verde. Local authorities refused to allow the vessel to dock due to fears that a wider outbreak could overwhelm the healthcare system of the small island nation.
Concerns in Tenerife
Similar concerns have been voiced in Tenerife, though reassurance came on Saturday in the form of a personal statement from the Director-General of the World Health Organization, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. He described hantavirus as "serious" but emphasized that the "risk is low." Dr. Tedros wrote: "I know you are worried. I know that when you hear the word 'outbreak' and watch a ship sail toward your shores, memories surface that none of us have fully put to rest. The pain of 2020 is still real, and I do not dismiss it for a single moment. But I need you to hear me clearly: this is not another COVID. The current public health risk from hantavirus remains low. My colleagues and I have said this unequivocally, and I will say it again to you now."
Dr. Tedros traveled to Spain on Saturday to meet with Spanish President Pedro Sánchez, whose country is coordinating the evacuation from the vessel. The President of the Canary Islands, Fernando Clavijo, successfully lobbied the Spanish government on Thursday to prevent the ship from docking in Tenerife, instead agreeing that it could anchor offshore to facilitate the transfer of passengers and crew. However, this arrangement is contingent on planes being ready on the tarmac to receive them. Winds are expected to pick up off the coast after Monday, potentially leaving personnel from countries without arranged flights stranded on board.
Arrival and Isolation
The ship is now expected to arrive in Tenerife earlier than originally anticipated, in the early hours of Sunday morning. It will anchor off the coast near the southern commercial port of Granadilla, where passengers will be screened for the virus. They are being instructed to isolate for 42 days from the point of potential exposure, which for most passengers occurred many days ago. In a message to hospital staff, Janelle Holmes, Chief Executive of Wirral University Teaching Hospital Trust, wrote: "The plan is for the British passengers and ship crew not displaying any symptoms of hantavirus to be escorted by UK government staff and given free passage back to the UK, and as a precaution they will remain in isolation." She confirmed that the accommodation block at Arrowe Park Hospital would "provide them with a safe place for their isolation period."
