Evacuation flights leave Tenerife after cruise ship virus outbreak

TENERIFE/MADRID: Groups of passengers and crew disembarked from a cruise ship hit by a deadly hantavirus outbreak on Sunday to be evacuated to their home countries where they will isolate according to national protocols to prevent further spread of the disease.

Government planes carrying Spanish and French nationals landed in Madrid and Paris on Sunday afternoon, where the passengers were transported to hospital, 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 2030 local time (1830) on Sunday, with the final flights departing on Monday by 1900 local time. The passengers will be tested upon arrival and then either taken to local hospitals or quarantine facilities or transported home for isolation.

The World Health Organization has recommended a 42-day quarantine for all passengers from the boat from Sunday, its director of epidemic and pandemic management Maria Van Kerkhove said in a briefing.

The Spanish passengers will be kept in hospital for the full 42 days, while French passengers will be hospitalised for 72 hours then allowed home to self-isolate for a further 45 days, according to the respective governments.

“Our recommendation is daily health checks, at home or in a specialized facility. It’s up to countries to develop their policies but our recommendations are very clear,” Van Kerkhove said, highlighting that the incubation period for the virus was up to six weeks.

“THIS IS NOT COVID”

The virus, usually spread by rodents but also transmittable person-to-person in rare cases of close contact, was first detected by health officials in Johannesburg on May 2 treating a British man who fell ill and was taken into intensive care, 21 days after another passenger had died.

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. Eight people no longer on the ship have fallen ill, according to a WHO tally from Friday, of which six are confirmed to have contracted the virus. Three have died - a Dutch couple and a German national.

Four remain hospitalized in South Africa, the Netherlands and Switzerland. On the remote island of Tristan da Cunha, a British overseas territory, a suspected case is being treated by a team of medical specialists parachuted in by the UK military.