set sail from Argentina to Cape Verde<\/a> over a month ago, and an investigation has been launched into the cause of the outbreak.<\/p>\nForeign Office staff have been speaking to Brits onboard by phone and email, while ministers are talking to counterparts from other counties on dealing with the crisis.<\/p>\n
Foreign Office teams have been working with local authorities in Cape Verde and with the Dutch Government on safe medivacs for sick passengers at the earliest possible opportunity, ahead of the ship\u2019s proposed move.<\/p>\n
This emergency work includes detailed ongoing planning of routes for safe medical evacuation if required, as well as safe repatriation of all British nationals on board at the earliest opportunity.<\/p>\n
The UK Health Security Agency is leading the Government\u2019s response.<\/p>\n
Official and ministerial level meetings have taken place to oversee the response, chaired by the Health Department and attended by the Chief Medical Officer.<\/p>\n
Two crew members, including the ship\u2019s reportedly British doctor, requiring urgent medical treatment were evacuated on a hospital aircraft to the Canary Islands on Tuesday, the WHO confirmed. A third person linked to a German national who died was also evacuated.<\/p>\n
Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the global health body, posted on X: \u201cThree suspected hantavirus case patients have just been evacuated from the ship and are on their way to receive medical care in the Netherlands in co-ordination with WHO, the ship\u2019s operator and national authorities from Cabo Verde, the United Kingdom, Spain and the Netherlands.<\/p>\n
\u201cWHO continues to work with the ship\u2019s operators to closely monitor the health of passengers and crew, working with countries to support appropriate medical follow-up and evacuation where needed.<\/p>\n
\u201cMonitoring and follow-up for passengers on board and for those who have already disembarked has been initiated in collaboration with the ship\u2019s operators and national health authorities.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt this stage, the overall public health risk remains low.\u201d<\/p>\n
The ship is expected to arrive at the Canary Islands in three days, with the hope passengers and crew members would be examined and given the medical attention they may need before beginning their journeys back home.<\/p>\n
But is is now unclear what will happen, as the regional government in the Canary Islands is opposed to allowing the ship to dock.<\/p>\n
Clavijo has requested an urgent meeting with Spain\u2019s Prime \u2060Minister Pedro Sanchez to discuss the issue.<\/p>\n
Tour operator Oceanwide Expeditions said in a statement: \u201cAt this stage, the planned destination for m\/v Hondius following the successful medical transfer is the Canary Islands.<\/p>\n
\u201cOceanwide Expeditions remains in close and continual discussion with relevant authorities regarding our exact point of arrival, quarantine and screening procedures for all guests, and a precise timeline.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are unable to confirm the details of onward travel for guests at this stage. This is dependent on medical advice and the outcome of stringent screening procedures.\u201d<\/p>\n
Passengers are confined to their cabins while \u201cdisinfection and other public health measures are carried out\u201d, the WHO said on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
An update from health officials in Spain on Tuesday said: \u201cThe World Health Organisation has explained that Cape Verde cannot carry out this operation.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Canary Islands are the closest place with the necessary capabilities.<\/p>\n
\u201cSpain has a moral and legal obligation to help these people, among whom are also several Spanish citizens.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hantavirus is a group of viruses carried by rodents such as mice and rats, transmitted through their droppings or urine, but the WHO said in this case it could have spread among \u201creally close contacts\u201d aboard the ship.<\/p>\n
It stressed the risk to the general public was low.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A British crew member with suspected hantavirus has been medically evacuated from the cruise ship that has been…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":414548,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[213201,213200,213204,154790,69107,213203,134,213202,23322,111,139,69,29459,62222],"class_list":["post-414547","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-british-crew-member","tag-canary-islands","tag-crew-member","tag-crew-members","tag-cruise-ship","tag-fernando-clavijo","tag-health","tag-hondius","tag-keir-starmer","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-passengers","tag-world-health-organisation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414547","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=414547"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414547\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/414548"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=414547"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=414547"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=414547"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}