On Sunday, a cruise ship that was hit by a deadly hantavirus outbreak evacuated groups of passengers and crew to their home countries, where they will isolate in accordance with national protocols to stop the disease from spreading further. Government planes carrying Spanish and French nationals landed in Madrid and Paris, where the passengers were transported to hospitals, according to the two countries’ governments.
One of the five French passengers showed symptoms during the repatriation flight, French Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu said on X.
Planes to Canada, the Netherlands, Turkey, the UK, Ireland, and the United States were due to depart by 8:30 local time on Sunday, with the final flights departing on Monday.
Upon arrival, the passengers will undergo testing before either being transported home for isolation or taken to nearby hospitals or quarantine facilities. Maria Van Kerkhove, the World Health Organization's director of epidemic and pandemic management, stated in a briefing that the quarantine period for all passengers from the boat will begin on Sunday and last 42 days.
According to the respective governments, the Spanish passengers will remain hospitalized for the full 42 days, whereas the French passengers will be allowed to self-isolate for 45 days after being hospitalized for 72 hours. Daily health checks—either at home or in a specialized facility—are our recommendation.
Van Kerkhove stated, highlighting the virus's six-week incubation period, "Our recommendations are very clear. It's up to countries to develop their policies."
"This isn't Covid," On May 2, while treating a British man who fell ill and was taken into intensive care, 21 days after another passenger had died, health officials in Johannesburg discovered the virus, which is typically spread by rodents but can also be transmitted person to person in rare cases of close contact. The man’s health has since improved, a WHO official said on Sunday.
The WHO said the first passenger who died on the ship may have been infected before boarding, possibly during travel in Argentina and Chile.
A WHO count from Friday indicates that eight people who are no longer on the ship have become ill, six of whom have been confirmed to have the virus. Three have died — a Dutch couple and a German national.
In South Africa, the Netherlands, and Switzerland, four remain in the hospital. A group of medical professionals brought in by the British military are treating a suspected case on the remote island of Tristan da Cunha, a British overseas territory. Still, health officials urged calm, reminding a public scarred from the experience of the Covid-19 pandemic that this virus was far less contagious and posed little risk to the general population.
After sharing a flight with one of the victims, a woman in Spain who was tested for the virus came back negative. “This is not Covid, and we don’t want to treat it like Covid,” acting US CDC Director Jay Bhattacharya said in an interview with CNN on Sunday, adding the 17 US passengers from the ship would be given the choice of isolating at home or at a facility in Nebraska.
Spain’s health ministry also downplayed the risk to the broader population. It added that rodents had not been detected aboard the ship.
Crew, ship set to sail on to Netherlands
After the WHO and the European Union asked the country to manage the evacuation of passengers after the outbreak was discovered, the luxury cruise ship set sail on Wednesday for Spain. Military buses took passengers from the ship to the shore in small boats and to the airport in Tenerife without coming into contact with the general public.
On Monday evening, the ship will be disinfected in the Netherlands, where thirty crew members will remain on board. “Thank God we are all fine … I hope we’ll get through the quarantine process smoothly and be able to see family and friends again,” Turkish birdwatcher Emin Yogurtcuoglu, a passenger on the ship, wrote in a public post on Instagram.
All passengers considered high-risk contacts: EU agency
Europe’s public health agency said ahead of the ship’s expected anchoring on Sunday off the Spanish island of Tenerife that all passengers on the cruise ship were considered high-risk contacts as a precautionary measure.
The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) announced on Saturday that as part of its rapid scientific advice, passengers who do not exhibit symptoms will be repatriated by their respective countries via specially arranged transportation for self-quarantine rather than regular commercial flights.
Although at disembarkation, passengers will be considered high-risk, not all will necessarily be considered high-risk upon return to their home countries, the ECDC said.
The agency urged symptomatic passengers to be prioritised for medical assessment and testing on arrival, adding they may isolate in Tenerife or be medically evacuated home, depending on their condition.
UK army in ‘daring’ parachute op to aid suspected Hantavirus patient
Earlier on Sunday, British military personnel carried out an airborne operation to deliver urgent medical support for a suspected Hantavirus patient on a South Atlantic island, ministers said.
An army specialist team parachuted onto the island of Tristan da Cunha, Britain’s most remote overseas territory, a defence ministry statement said.
One of three British nationals diagnosed with suspected hantavirus linked to the outbreak on the MV Hondius cruise ship is on the island.
The team of six paratroopers and two military clinicians, all from the 16 Air Assault Brigade, descended from a Royal Air Force (RAF) A400M transport aircraft “in a daring parachute drop”, the statement said.
Vital oxygen supplies and other medical aid were air-dropped almost simultaneously.
The urgent response came after confirmation by the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) on Friday of a suspected infection in a British national on the island.
Tristan da Cunha, a group of volcanic islands with a population of around 220 has no airstrip and is accessible only by boat.
With oxygen supplies at critically low levels, officials said an airdrop was the only viable option to deliver care in time and support the island’s two-person medical team.
Yvette Cooper, the foreign secretary, praised the armed forces for their "extraordinary operation." According to the statement, the drop involved a nearly 6,800-kilometer long-range flight from RAF Brize Norton in central England to Ascension Island and a further 3,000-kilometer flight to Tristan da Cunha.
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