GRANADILLA DE ABONA, Spain – The last six passengers and some crew members of the hantavirus-hit MV Hondius left the ship on the Spanish island of Tenerife on Monday as its captain praised their patience and discipline during an “extremely challenging” few weeks.
Strong winds forced the polar expedition ship carrying the remaining passengers – four Australians, one Briton who lives in Australia and a New Zealander – to dock briefly at the port of Granadilla de Abona to allow them to disembark safely and board a flight to the Netherlands, where they will spend time in quarantine, Spain’s health ministry said.
Nineteen crew members from the ship and three doctors who treated them were due to take off for the Netherlands on a separate flight, the Dutch Foreign Ministry said.
The MV Hondius was then due to continue its journey with 26 crew members to the Netherlands – its flag state – where it would be disinfected, health authorities said.
“I could not imagine sailing through these circumstances with a better group of people, guests and crew alike,” Captain Jan Dobrogowski, from the Netherlands, said in a video posted on Oceanwide Expeditions’ website.
The disembarkation caps a complex operation that has so far resulted in 94 people being evacuated and repatriated to their countries of residence, 41 days after the MV Hondius set off from southern Argentina and nine days after the first positive test result for the respiratory viral infection.
Three people – a Dutch couple and a German national – have died since the start of the outbreak of the virus, which is usually spread by wild rodents but also transmittable person-to-person in rare cases of close contact.
The World Health Organization said on Monday there were now seven confirmed cases of the Andes strain of hantavirus, and two other suspected cases – one who died before being tested, and one on Tristan da Cunha, a remote South Atlantic island where there were no tests available.
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