Spain hantavirus management: cruise ship passengers will arrive in five-people boats before heading to the airport

Spain's Ministry of Health is finalising all the details for the disembarkation in Tenerife of the passengers from the MV Hondius cruise ship, which detected the presence of hantavirus aboard.

The ship will arrive at the Granadilla de Abona Port in the Canary Islands on Sunday morning, but it will anchor offshore. Several teams will participate in the operation aimed at preventing any risk of contagion.

Medical personnel will board the vessel to conduct medical checks on the passengers and confirm that they do not have symptoms of the virus.

Later, boats will travel to the ship to pick up the passengers, five at a time, until all 147 people reach the shore.

There, vehicles the shipping company will provide will pick them up, under the supervision of the Spanish government. They will take them to Tenerife Sur Airport, which is just ten minutes from Granadilla.

During the journey, the passengers will have no contact with island residents. The staff supervising the passengers will be equipped with all necessary safety measures.

The passengers will arrive at a secluded area of the airport, where the planes will already be waiting on the tarmac, to minimise their time on the ground.

Military aircraft will transfer the 14 Spaniards to the Gómez Ulla hospital in Madrid, which has state-of-the-art isolation facilities, to begin their quarantine there. The Ministry of Health has confirmed that no Spaniard has refused to self-isolate.

For the 133 international passengers, Spain is negotiating against the clock with their 22 countries of origin. Eight of them are from the EU: France (five passengers), Germany (seven passengers and one crew member), Greece (one), Belgium (two), the Netherlands (six passengers and five crew members), Ireland (two passengers) and Poland (one crew member). Three other countries are part of the European civil protection mechanism: Turkey (three passengers), Ukraine (five crew members) and Montenegro (one).

The US (17 passengers) and the UK (19 passengers and four crew members) have expressed their willingness to send aircraft and negotiations are ongoing with Japan (one passenger), New Zealand (one), Argentina (one), Russia (one crew member), the Philippines (38), India (two crew members) and Guatemala (one). If they cannot reach agreements, the ship's operator will assume responsibility.

The ministerial department in charge of the protocol has assured the Canary Islands regional government that the health status of the passengers and crew "is good". "None have had any symptoms since 28 April."