The president of the Canary Islands, Fernando Clavijo, is not willing for the MV Hondius cruise ship, where several cases of hantavirus were detected, to dock at a port on the island of Tenerife as announced by the Spanish government.
“I cannot allow it to enter the Canary Islands,” he stated, speaking to the radio station Onda Cero.
The president of the autonomous community thus responded to the announcement by the Pedro Sánchez government, which indicated that the cruise ship will dock on Saturday at the port of Granadilla de Abona, on the island of Tenerife.
The Spanish executive specified that the 14 Spanish passengers will be quarantined in Madrid and the foreigners will be evacuated to their countries of origin.
The MV Hondius is anchored near Cape Verde, off the west coast of Africa, with about 150 people under “strict precautionary measures,” according to the operating company.
Three passengers have died and three others with symptoms were evacuated this Wednesday to receive medical attention in the Netherlands.
The cruise set sail from Argentina about a month ago on a journey across the Atlantic Ocean.
“They have not given us information”
Clavijo, leader of the regionalist Canary Coalition party, argued that his government has not been consulted about the decision to send the MV Hondius there, a measure that the Spanish government would have agreed with the World Health Organization (WHO).
He assured that he did not know “what the WHO agreement is with the government of Spain” and that he is still not clear “what the status of the passengers is, the contagion or the strain itself.”
“This decision does not obey any technical criteria nor have they provided us with sufficient information to maintain a message of calm and guarantee the safety of the population in the Canary Islands,” he declared to the EFE agency.
The regional leader also alleged that “it makes no sense” that, if the passengers “are technically healthy”, they have to disembark in the Canary Islands for repatriation.
“Why, if what you want to proceed with is a repatriation, is it not done, in this case, in the port of Praia (Cape Verde) or at the Praia airport, and subject to the viacrucis to all these passengers on a three-day voyage until they reach a Canarian port?”, he stated.
He also argued that the Nuestra Señora de La Candelaria health center in Santa Cruz de Tenerife lacks the appropriate protocol to handle this case.
“Right now we don’t have any activation request for anything and, since we don’t know anything, we obviously can’t predict anything,” he alleged.
Clavijo demanded “loyalty, information and collaboration” from the Pedro Sánchez government and demanded that it share information about “what is happening on that ship, the level of contagion, the strain…” in order to make a decision.
Who is left on the cruise?
Following medical evacuations, 146 people remain on board the MV Hondius, including the body of the German passenger who died on May 2.
Before the evacuations, the company had reported that 61 crew members and 88 passengers were on the cruise ship.
Among travelers and workers there are 23 different nationalities.
Among the passengers, the British made up the largest group, with 19 people on board.
The crew is predominantly Filipino citizens, with 38 people working on the ship.
There are also nationals from the United States, Spain, New Zealand, India, Belgium, Ireland and Japan, among other countries.
According to the WHO, the ship has been anchored off Cape Verde since the beginning of May under strict sanitary measures.
What is known so far
International health authorities are trying to clarify how the contagion began and what the true scope of the situation is.
The ship, operated by the company Oceanwide Expeditions, remains off Cape Verde under strict precautionary measures after weeks of medical incidents.
The WHO has so far confirmed three cases of hantavirus related to the cruise ship and is investigating five other suspects.
A Dutch citizen died on April 11 on board the ship. The authorities have not been able to determine if he was infected.
His wife, who was being transported to accompany the body, died on April 26 and was later confirmed to have hantavirus.
The WHO has fully confirmed three hantavirus infections associated with the cruise: in addition to the deceased Dutch woman, there is a British passenger evacuated to South Africa, who remains hospitalized in intensive care, and a Swiss citizen who previously returned to his country and is receiving treatment at a health center in Zurich.
The third ship-related death occurred on May 2, when a German citizen also died aboard the MV Hondius. Authorities have also not confirmed whether he was infected with the virus.
Five other suspects are added to these cases. Three were recently evacuated from the ship: a 56-year-old British doctor, a 41-year-old Dutch crew member and a 65-year-old German national who, according to Oceanwide Expeditions, had a close relationship with the German passenger who died on May 2.
The company reported that two of the evacuees are in serious condition.
Meanwhile, authorities continue to test other passengers and crew members who present symptoms compatible with the disease.
How the outbreak could have arisen
Health authorities still do not know where exactly the outbreak originated and whether the virus could have affected people who were not on the MV Hondius.
The WHO suspects that the first infected person may have contracted the virus before boarding.
The agency also pointed out that, although the hantavirus is usually transmitted through rodents, in this case contagion between people could have occurred due to extremely close contact between some passengers.
“Some people on the ship were couples and shared cabins, so there was quite intimate contact,” explained Maria Van Kerkhove, head of the WHO.
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