The president of Spain’s Canary Islands on Wednesday pushed back against plans to allow a cruise ship suffering a deadly onboard hantavirus outbreak to dock in Tenerife.
Regional President Fernando Clavijo also demanded an “urgent meeting” with Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez to discuss the issue.
The hantavirus outbreak has already killed 3 of the roughly 150 passengers on the MV Hondius. The disease is typically linked to exposure to infected rodent droppings, but the WHO believes rare human-to-human transmission may have taken place aboard the cruise.
Accusing Madrid of moving ahead without enough transparency, Clavijo said he opposed allowing the MV Hondius to dock in the archipelago’s ports. In an interview with the Cope radio network, he added that the decision to admit the ship did not follow “any technical criteria” and said the national government had failed to provide “sufficient information to maintain a message of calm.”
Spanish Territorial Policy Minister Ángel Víctor Torres rejected the Canarian leader’s complaints and said Madrid had been in “constant contact” with his team. He added that Madrid had agreed to admit the MV Hondius to port after receiving instructions from the World Health Organization (WHO).
A Spanish government spokesperson said the decision to allow the vessel to dock in Tenerife had been taken “in compliance with international law and humanitarian principles.” Sánchez held a meeting Wednesday morning with Torres, Health Minister Mónica García, Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska and Transport Minister Óscar Puente to discuss the operation.
Although some passengers requiring urgent care were evacuated from the ship as it passed Cape Verde on Wednesday, the rest are due to undergo medical screening, treatment and repatriation once the MV Hondius arrives in Tenerife. The Spanish government has selected La Candelaria University Hospital on the island, a center equipped to handle outbreaks of contagious diseases such as smallpox and Ebola, to treat any infected passengers.
Concerns intensified on Wednesday after South African authorities confirmed two cases of the Andes strain of hantavirus — one of the most aggressive variants of the disease — in travelers linked to the ship.
The WHO later confirmed Swiss authorities had also identified a case in a passenger on the MV Hondius, bringing the total number of suspected cases linked to the outbreak to eight.
In a statement Wednesday afternoon, WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said, “WHO continues to work with the ship’s operators to closely monitor the health of passengers and crew, working with countries to support appropriate medical follow-up and evacuation where needed. Monitoring and follow-up for passengers on board and for those who have already disembarked has been initiated in collaboration with the ship’s operators and national health authorities.”
Passengers aboard the ship are currently isolating in their cabins as the vessel makes its way to European waters.