A luxury cruise ship hit by a deadly hantavirus outbreak and marooned for days off the coast of Cabo Verde with close to 150 people on board was due to head to Spain, while South Africa confirmed it identified among the victims a strain of the virus that can – in rare cases – spread among humans.
The ship will dock “within three days” at Granadilla on the island of Tenerife, Spain’s health minister said on Wednesday, despite opposition from the Canary Islands regional government.
“A joint system for health assessment and evacuation will be put in place to repatriate all passengers, unless their medical condition prevents it,” Health Minister Monica Garcia Gomez told a Madrid news conference.
And the Swiss government said a man who returned to Switzerland after being a passenger on the MV Hondius was infected with the hantavirus and was being treated in Zurich. It said there was no danger to the broader population.
A Dutch couple and a German national who had been on the ship have died, while a British national was in intensive care in South Africa.
Two air ambulances sent to retrieve three people believed infected with hantavirus left Cape Verde’s airport on Wednesday, an AFP journalist witnessed.