Tenerife is finalizing preparations for the arrival of the cruise ship MV Hondius, scheduled for early Sunday morning. The Minister of Health, Mónica García; the Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska; and the Director-General of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, will travel to the island this Saturday to coordinate the cruise ship’s arrival. The hantavirus cases linked to the confirmed outbreak so far amount to six, according to the latest report from the World Health Organization. Additionally, there are two other people suspected of having it, pending confirmation through medical tests. In Spain, a woman in Catalonia who was in contact with one of the deceased from hantavirus after traveling on the ship has been identified. Furthermore, two other contacts who traveled on the same flight have been located: a woman in Alicante and another who spent a week in Barcelona and returned to her country of origin, South Africa. None of the three have symptoms. The PCR results for the woman admitted in Alicante are expected this weekend.
Read more Putin celebrates Victory Day without tanks, internet, or almost any foreign leaders
EL PAÍS offers the latest updates on the hantavirus outbreak on the ‘MV Hondius’ cruise ship free of charge. If you want to support our journalism, subscribe.
How is the hantavirus outbreak being contained? An international race to find contacts
More than a dozen countries are tracking dozens of people linked to the hantavirus outbreak on the MV Hondius cruise ship. There are three main clusters: the 147 people still on board heading to Tenerife; about thirty who disembarked in Santa Elena between April 21 and 24; and travelers who shared flights with an evacuated patient.
You can read the full information here
Valencia sends the sample of the suspected case from Alicante to the National Center for Microbiology
The Valencian Health Department has sent the sample taken from the woman under monitoring for traveling on the flight from which a person who died from hantavirus was evacuated. She has been hospitalized since Friday at the San Juan Hospital in Alicante.
The sample was registered at 3 a.m., and the PCR results for hantavirus are expected within 24 to 48 hours, according to the Valencian government. The patient shows mild respiratory symptoms, mainly related to coughing, and is isolated in a negative pressure room.
The Health Department sent the sample taken on Friday from the woman under monitoring last night to the National Center for Microbiology. She was a passenger on the flight from which a person who later died was evacuated and had traveled on the MV Hondius cruise ship. According to the protocol established by the Ministry of Health, if the PCR is negative, it is repeated 24 hours after confirming the sample result. If the second PCR is also negative, the patient would be considered a contact in quarantine and transferred to the Gómez Ulla Central Defense Hospital in Madrid. Conversely, if the PCR is positive, the woman would be evacuated to the High-Level Isolation and Treatment Unit at La Fe Hospital in Valencia.
The 32-year-old patient was admitted on Friday to San Juan Hospital in Alicante and is in a negative pressure isolation room. The Directorate General of Public Health of the Health Department contacted the woman yesterday after receiving an alert through the European Alert System and in coordination with the Ministry of Health. Subsequently, the woman was transferred from her home to an Alicante hospital in an ambulance equipped with the safety elements established for these cases. Once at the hospital, she was taken to the corresponding room maintaining her isolation in a negative pressure capsule and transported through a secure and separate route from other patients and staff, thus ensuring safety at all times. (Efe)
Video | The key points of the disembarkation in the Canary Islands of the ‘MS Hondius’ passengers due to the hantavirus outbreak
The director of the Animal Health Research Center at INIA-CSIC analyzes the risk of contagion during the transfer of people on board the cruise ship.
You can watch the full video here
HANTAVIRUS
Key points of the hantavirus outbreak: what is known (and what is not) about the health crisis that has awakened the specter of the pandemic
The world has been focused all week on an Antarctic cruise ship sailing the Atlantic. On the MV Hondius, a hantavirus outbreak has been detected that has alerted global health authorities and awakened the specter of a new pandemic. The World Health Organization (WHO) has reported, so far, eight cases, three of them fatal, linked to this infectious episode, but is monitoring several dozen people who have been in contact with the ship’s passengers.
You can read all the key points here
Hantavirus
Tenerife prepares for the arrival of the cruise ship with a hantavirus outbreak: “I feel sorry for them, but I am afraid”
Two ministers, the Director-General of the World Health Organization —“the risk to the Canary Islands population is low”— and the Director-General of Civil Protection and Emergencies, among other officials, worked to reassure the Canary Islands population about the dangers that the arrival of the MV Hondius cruise ship with the hantavirus outbreak on Sunday at noon could bring, as soon as the decision was made to bring the cruise to Tenerife. The ship will anchor far from the coast instead of docking. Minister Ángel Víctor Torres insisted that passengers will be evacuated by boats with “absolute safety,” so that “there is no contact with the Canary Islands population.” Two decisions were made to satisfy the demands of the Canary Islands president, Fernando Clavijo, who was very critical of the government of Pedro Sánchez — whom he accused of disloyalty — for responding to the World Health Organization’s requests to use the Canary Islands territory for this health operation.
You can read the full information here
Mónica García, Grande-Marlaska, and the WHO director travel to Tenerife this Saturday
The Minister of Health, Mónica García, the Interior Minister, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, and the Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, will travel this Saturday to Tenerife to coordinate the operation deployed ahead of the arrival of the MV Hondius cruise ship at the port of Granadilla.
“The delegation will depart at 18:00 and will carry out direct monitoring from the command post set up to ensure coordination between administrations, health control, and the application of the planned surveillance and response protocols,” Interior reports. (Efe)
Good morning. We begin the live narration of the latest on the hantavirus outbreak declared on board the MV Hondius cruise ship, with six confirmed cases so far, on this Saturday, May 9, less than 24 hours before the ship’s arrival in Tenerife.
This afternoon, the Minister of Health, Mónica García; the Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska; and the Director-General of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, will travel to the island to coordinate the cruise ship’s arrival.
This weekend, the PCR results for a 32-year-old woman from Alicante, who traveled on the same flight as one of the deceased passengers, are also expected.
Read more The Spain Pavilion at the Venice Biennale suspends its opening due to a strike against Israel
