Regional leader opposes plan to dock hantavirus-hit cruise ship on Canary Islands

MADRID — The president of the Canary Islands has said he opposes the Spanish government’s plan to allow a virus-hit luxury cruise ship dock on the archipelago. “This decision is not based on any technical criteria, nor is there sufficient information to reassure the public or guarantee their safety,” Fernando Clavijo told radio station COPE on Wednesday. He added that he ‌had ⁠requested an urgent meeting with Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez to discuss the issue. Clavijo leads a coalition with the conservative People’s Party — the main ⁠opposition to Sanchez’s Socialists. Earlier on Wednesday, Spanish state broadcaster TVE reported the cruise ship was set ⁠to dock at the Canary island of Tenerife, citing sources from the country’s ⁠health ministry. The MV Hondius, which departed from Argentina on April 1, has reported an outbreak of the deadly hantavirus on board. Three confirmed and five suspected cases of hantavirus, a rare but severe disease usually spread by rodents, have since been identified. Three passengers on the ship have died and several more are either ill or displaying symptoms after the MV Hondius set sail from Argentina. Three people, one of them a British national, were evacuated from the ship to the Netherlands on Wednesday, the WHO said. In an update on Wednesday morning, the ship’s operator says two of the evacuees were showing “acute symptoms”. Meanwhile in Switzerland, a man in hospital has the virus after traveling on the cruise ship, the government said. It says person-to-person transmission is “rare” and the risk to the Swiss public is “low”. The ship was supposed to arrive in the Canaries in the next few days but Clavijo says: “I cannot allow [the boat] to enter.” Clavijo says those on board the ship must be taken into account, and that a three-day journey from Cape Verde to the Canary Islands “does not make sense”. “If the passengers are safe and healthy, it does not make sense that they have to come to the Canary Islands to be repatriated, they could do that from the international airport of Cape Verde,” he says. “If we’re thinking about the general interest of the passengers, what makes sense is to start doing this now.” On Tuesday before the latest evacuations, Hondius passenger and travel influencer Kasem Hato shared a video online, explaining what life is like on the virus-hit ship. He is among around 150 people from 23 countries on the vessel stranded near Cape Verde, off the west coast of Africa. Kasem Hato told Reuters the ship’s captain was keeping passengers updated and that those on board had been advised to limit close contact with other passengers and use hand sanitizer regularly. “People are taking the situation seriously but without any panic, trying to keep social distancing and wearing masks to be safe,” he said. “Our days have been close to normal, just waiting for authorities to find a solution, but morale on the ship is high and we’re keeping ourselves busy with reading, watching movies, having hot drinks, and that kind of things.“