THE HAGUE \u2014 A cruise ship that sparked global alarm after a deadly outbreak of hantavirus will end its voyage in Rotterdam on Monday, with its remaining skeleton crew facing weeks of quarantine.<\/p>\n
The MV Hondius is expected to dock in the Dutch port between 10 a.m. and midday on Monday, according to officials, before disembarking the 27 remaining people on board: 25 crew and two medical staff.<\/p>\n
The ship, operated by Dutch company Oceanwide Expeditions, made headlines after three passengers died from hantavirus \u2014 a rare virus for which no vaccines nor specific treatments exist.<\/p>\n
The World Health Organization (WHO) has scrambled to reassure the world that the outbreak was not a repeat of the Covid pandemic, stressing that contagion was very rare.<\/p>\n
“There is no sign that we are seeing the start of a larger outbreak,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters on May 12.<\/p>\n
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By signing up with an email address, I acknowledge that I have read and agree to the Terms of Service<\/a> and Privacy Policy<\/a>.<\/p>\n However, the virus has an incubation period of several weeks, meaning more cases from the ship’s occupants could emerge in the future, Tedros warned.<\/p>\n Hospitalizations<\/p>\n After arriving in the Canary Islands on May 10, more than 120 passengers and crew were evacuated from the ship, either to their home countries or to the Netherlands, which has a special responsibility as the ship is Dutch-flagged.<\/p>\n A 65-year-old French woman became symptomatic on the repatriation flight and ended up in critical condition in a Paris hospital with a confirmed case of hantavirus.<\/p>\n Two people, one Dutch and one British, were also urgently evacuated from the ship to the Netherlands and rushed to hospital.<\/p>\n Both are in stable condition and the Briton is well enough to return home for self-isolation, according to Dutch officials.<\/p>\n All others evacuated to the Netherlands from the ship have tested negative for the virus.<\/p>\n Some are in quarantine in the Netherlands, others have already flown home.<\/p>\n Andes strain<\/p>\n The people disembarking on Monday comprise 17 from the Philippines, four from the Netherlands (two crew and the two medical staff), four from Ukraine, one from Russia and one from Poland.<\/p>\n Some of them will stay in quarantine facilities at the port, while others will self-isolate at home.<\/p>\n Also on board is the body of a German woman who died during the voyage.<\/p>\n After docking, the ship will undergo thorough cleaning and disinfection procedures, according to the operator.<\/p>\n The details are still being finalized but the cleaning will start upon arrival, said Oceanwide Expeditions.<\/p>\n The MV Hondius presented diplomatic challenges as different countries negotiated over who would receive it and treat its passengers.<\/p>\n Cape Verde refused to take the ship, which remained anchored offshore of the capital Praia as three people were evacuated to Europe by air.<\/p>\n Spain allowed the vessel to anchor off its Canary Islands for the evacuation of passengers and crew but the Atlantic archipelago’s regional government fiercely opposed the measure.<\/p>\n Those infected have the Andes virus \u2014 the only strain of hantavirus that can spread between people. AFP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"THE HAGUE \u2014 A cruise ship that sparked global alarm after a deadly outbreak of hantavirus will end…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13643,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[7476,11567,11565,11563,1515,11564,3906,41,4741,1510,11566],"class_list":["post-13642","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rotterdam","tag-cruise","tag-dock","tag-end","tag-hantavirus-hit","tag-in","tag-nears","tag-of","tag-rotterdam","tag-ship","tag-to","tag-voyage"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13642","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13642"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13642\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13643"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13642"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13642"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13642"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}