3 removed from hantavirus ship as Spain says it will stop in Canary Islands despite local opposition

Three suspected hantavirus patients have been discharged from the MV Hondius and are on their way to the Netherlands for medical treatment, the World Health Organization said on Wednesday. The three are German, Dutch and British nationals, including a member of the British team, according to the WHO.

The unusual outbreak of this virus has killed three people who were traveling on the ship.

In the latest situation in the plight of about 150 passengers, the Spanish government confirmed on Wednesday what it announced earlier in the day, saying that the ship would stop in the Canary Islands, although the head of the local government rejected this plan earlier in the day.

The plan announced on Tuesday, coordinated between the Spanish government and the WHO, was for the ship to head to the Canary Islands for “full investigation” and “full testing” after the three patients were discharged. But the island’s regional government leader, Fernando Clavijo, rejected the idea on Wednesday morning, saying he had requested a meeting with Spain’s Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez.

In a social media post, Clavijo, a member of Spain’s political opposition, wrote: “The Canary Islands are always responsible, but they cannot accept decisions made behind the Canary Islands’ institutions and without sufficient information for the people.”

In a recent press conference, however, Spain’s health minister, Monica Garcia Gomez, doubled down on the plan, saying the ship would dock in Granadilla on the Canary island of Tenerife, “within three days.”

“A joint program of health checks and evacuations will be carried out to repatriate all passengers, unless their health condition prevents them,” he told reporters.

On Wednesday, José Domingo Regalado, the mayor of Granadilla de Abona in Tenerife, rejected the arrival of the MV Hondius in the industrial port and municipal property, saying that the move goes “against what is wanted.”

“What we are asking is that action be taken, because they can be transferred to the nearest airport in their countries so that they can live in isolation and be treated by their health system if they need it. And, in particular, that the ship is infected with high seas viruses and can be transported to a port where there are local people nearby,” he said.

Regarding Clavijo’s previous comments on the show, Gomez said he has been in “regular contact” with Clavijo and that he will participate in all meetings.

The flight that was scheduled to take the ship’s doctor, who was showing symptoms, to the Canary Islands was canceled early Wednesday, a source close to the regional president’s office told French news agency AFP.

Spain’s health ministry later announced that sick people would be treated in the Netherlands.

South African authorities confirmed on Wednesday that they had identified the callers Andes is a type of hantavirus to two people who had been on the cruise. The Andes strain, found mainly in Argentina and Chile, can be transmitted from person to person, unlike other strains of the virus..

Swiss authorities announced on Wednesday that a man who had sailed and returned home at the end of April had also tested positive for the Andes virus, adding that “there is currently no risk to the Swiss public.”

The French Ministry of Health, meanwhile, told the country’s BFM TV network that France’s “contact case” had been confirmed. It is believed that the man traveled on the same plane as one of the two patients was transported to Johannesburg for treatment in late April.

There is currently another British national in intensive care in South Africa after the cruise, but French authorities may be referring to another patient who was flown to Johannesburg, a 69-year-old Dutch woman who the WHO said disembarked the ship with “abdominal symptoms” on April 24 and died two days later after her condition “deteriorated during the flight to Johannesburg.”

That brings the number of suspected or confirmed cases to nine, including three deaths, five confirmed to be receiving treatment, and a French man, about whom few details have been given.

The ship’s operator, Oceanwide Expeditions, said two infectious disease specialists were leaving the Netherlands for the sea on Wednesday and “will stay with the ship after it leaves Cape Verde.”

The Dutch-flagged MV Hontius, a luxury liner, left Ushuaia, Argentina, on April 1. It has been docked in Cape Verde, an island off the west coast of Africa in the Atlantic, since Sunday.

Ann Lindstrand, the WHO representative in Cape Verde, told Ramy Inocencio of CBS News on Tuesday that there is no risk of a pandemic threat with hantavirus given the small chance of human-to-human transmission.

Spanish and Dutch authorities are “discussing a lot” what will happen next to the passengers on the ship, he said. They were told to stay in their homes as much as possible.

“If there is a need for quarantine, that will be the decision of the health authorities in Spain or Holland at that time, in close cooperation with WHO advice,” Lindstrand said.

If necessary, quarantine can last up to two months, since the incubation period for hantavirus is between one and eight weeks, he added, noting that “eight weeks is a very long period of quarantine.”

Lindstrand said she had been in contact with a volunteer doctor on board who told her the passengers were “remarkably well,” although they were anxious to know what their next port of call would be.

“We’ve heard of a few people on board,” Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO director of epidemiology and pandemic preparedness and protection, said on Tuesday. “We just want you to know that we are working with the ship’s management. We are working with the countries you come from. We hear you. We know you are afraid.”