Spain will host in the Canary Islands the luxury cruise ship with a hantavirus outbreak at the request of the World Health Organization (WHO) in "compliance with International Law and humanitarian spirit," as reported by the Ministry of Health, which has chosen Tenerife as the reference point to assist the cruise ship.
There are three evacuees, of German, British, and Dutch nationality, who will finally travel to the Netherlands. It had been speculated that the ship's doctor would be transferred to the Canary Islands.
The Spanish Government will disclose the details of the protocol to accommodate the cruise ship as soon as they are defined by the WHO and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) and will inform "promptly about its implementation," according to Health.
The MV Hondius vessel is anchored in Cape Verde, where a team of WHO epidemiologists is conducting an assessment on the ship to determine the actions to be taken.
Their intention is to know the status of the 147 people on board, including fourteen Spaniards, among them five Catalans, three from Madrid, one from Galicia, and one from Valencia, initially in good health.
The German woman from the affected ship by hantavirus will undergo tests at a hospital in Düsseldorf
A German citizen who was on board a luxury cruise ship affected by a deadly hantavirus outbreak will be transferred to a hospital in the German city of Düsseldorf for tests, a spokesperson for the center announced on Wednesday, adding that the person shows no symptoms.
The patient, who has been in contact with an infected person, will be transferred from an airport in the Netherlands to Düsseldorf by a high-risk patient transport unit from the city's fire department, the spokesperson said in a statement.
Preliminary medical evaluations and infectious examinations will be carried out in the infectious diseases unit, and additional virological laboratory tests are also planned, the spokesperson added.
A Dutch, a German, and a Briton, the evacuees from the cruise ship
The three people evacuated from the luxury cruise ship affected by the deadly hantavirus outbreak come from the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and Germany, as reported by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Wednesday.
Two of the individuals are ill, and one may have been infected by the virus, added the Ministry, stating that they will be transferred to specialized hospitals in Europe, without providing further details.
WHO has confirmed eight hantavirus cases linked to the cruise ship
The World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed on Wednesday that there are now eight confirmed cases of patients infected with hantavirus. According to the WHO, Swiss authorities have confirmed a new case of a passenger from the MV Hondius cruise ship. This passenger "had responded to an email from the ship's operator informing passengers about the health event and presented themselves at a hospital in Zurich, Switzerland, where they are receiving care," they stated in a social media post. In the same message, the Organization indicated that in accordance with the International Health Regulations (IHR), the WHO is working with the countries involved to "support international contact tracing to ensure that potentially exposed individuals are monitored and to limit any further spread of the disease."