Irish passengers from hantavirus-hit ship begin quarantining at HSE-run facility

LAST UPDATE | 3 hrs ago

TWO IRISH PEOPLE who were on board the cruise ship struck by hantavirus have begun quarantining after landing in Ireland.

The MV Hondius, which is at the centre of the hantavirus outbreak, docked in Tenerife in the Canary Islands on Sunday morning, where a controlled evacuation took place.

The two were among nearly 150 people on board the ship.

They’ll now have to quarantine for five weeks, as per the instructions of the HSE and the government. They’ll stay in an HSE-run facility, where they’ll be monitored.

Professor Mary Horgan, Interim Chief Medical Officer, told RTÉ’s Morning Ireland that Irish nationals do not have any symptoms of the virus.

“They’re in good spirits, they’re in good health,” she said, adding that she wouldn’t share more detail, to respect their privacy.

Day zero of their quarantine was 6 May. They must remain quarantined for 42 days, or five weeks, from that date.

Horgan said that they will also be offered mental health support during this time.

An American passenger returning to the US from the cruise ship tested positive for the virus, while a second is showing mild symptoms. As a result, the two passengers were in the plane’s biocontainment units during the flight home.

A French national showed symptoms while on the plane home and their condition has since deteriorated.

Asked if passengers who showed symptoms should’ve been allowed on the plane, Horgan said: “The process by which they were transited back to their country involved really a robust infection prevention and control.

“The guidelines are very clear on what to do, what care paths to use if people have no symptoms. In the event they get symptoms, a different care path is used.”

She added: “People do get sick on planes.”

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Flight-tracking websites showed the Irish government plane left Tenerife for Ireland at around 5.40pm and landed back at the military air base in west Co Dublin shortly after 9pm.

Two ambulances were seen leaving the airport just before 9.30pm.

The Department of Health said two passengers would be accompanied by HSE medics during the “aeromedical evacuation” from the MV Hondius yesterday.

Three passengers from the ship – a Dutch husband and wife and a German woman – have died.

The Andes strain of hantavirus, the only strain that can transmit from person to person, has been confirmed among those who have tested positive, fuelling international concern.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, head of the World Health Organisation (WHO), who oversaw the ship evacuation, said the risk to the public and the people of the Canaries remained low.

In an open letter to the people of Tenerife, he wrote: “I need you to hear me clearly. This is not another Covid.”

Horgan reiterated this mornign that the infection “is very rare”, and the likelihood of person to person transmission “is very low”.

“We don’t see this transmitting in the community at all … we have adhered to all of the infection prevention and control precautions that are required to keep the people, the two passengers, safe, but also the broader public safe,” she said.

“Thankfully, there are no reports of cases outside that the outbreak on the boat.”

Evacuation of the ship on Sunday was done by nationality and passengers were ferried to port by small boat.

Passengers were told to leave their luggage on the ship and were only allowed to take a small bag with essential items.

While they were being bussed from the port at Granadilla de Abona to Tenerife South Airport, some passengers, wearing blue PPE, waved and gave thumbs up gestures as they passed watching media.

Those crew members and a nurse from the Netherlands, as well as the body of a passenger who died on board, will remain on the ship, which will sail to Rotterdam in the Netherlands where it will undergo disinfection, the WHO said.

With reporting by PA

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