MADRID, May 9 (Reuters) – Germany, France, Belgium, Ireland, and the Netherlands will send planes to evacuate their citizens aboard the Tenerife-bound cruise ship hit by a deadly hantavirus outbreak, Spain’s interior minister said in Madrid on Saturday.
The European Union is sending two further planes for remaining European citizens, Fernando Grande-Marlaska added. The U.S. and UK have confirmed planes and contingency plans were being arranged for non-EU citizens whose countries were unable to send air transport, he said.
World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus will meet Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez in Madrid on Saturday afternoon and then travel to Tenerife in the Canary Islands, alongside Spain’s interior and health ministers to coordinate the arrival of the ship. It is expected to anchor near the island between 0300 GMT and 0500 GMT.
Local authorities have warned the evacuation must take place between Sunday midday and Monday afternoon before conditions at sea are expected to take a turn for the worse until the end of May due to stormy weather.
The luxury cruise ship MV Hondius left for Spain on Wednesday from the coast of Cape Verde after the WHO and European Union asked the country to manage the evacuation of passengers onboard after the hantavirus outbreak was detected.
The World Health Organization said on Friday that eight people had fallen ill, including three who died – a Dutch couple and a German national.
Six of these people are confirmed to have contracted the virus, with another two suspected cases, the WHO has said.
Hantavirus is usually spread by rodents but can in rare cases be transmitted person-to-person.
All passengers as well as 17 crew members will be evacuated but 30 crew will stay on board and travel on to the Netherlands, Spain’s Health Minister Monica Garcia said. Luggage and the body of a deceased passenger on the ship will remain on board and the ship will be fully disinfected on arrival, she added.
Spanish citizens will disembark first, with the order of evacuation of the remaining groups of citizens to be determined by health authorities. Citizens will not be able to disembark until their evacuation plane is ready to depart, Grande-Marlaska said.
(Reporting by Victoria Waldersee, Corina Pons, Editing by Aislinn Laing, Alexandra Hudson)
