By Corina Pons, Charlie Devereux and Borja Suarez
MADRID, May 6 (Reuters) – The arrival this weekend of a cruise ship hit by an outbreak of hantavirus is reviving memories for residents of Spain’s Canary Islands of the quarantines they experienced during the Covid pandemic.
The MV Hondius, carrying 150 people, is expected to reach Tenerife on Saturday, where it will dock after Spain agreed to requests from the World Health Organization to receive it despite protests from the local government.
The archipelago was one of the first places in Europe to undergo quarantines during the early days of the pandemic. More than 700 holidaymakers were stranded in a hotel in Tenerife for 14 days in February 2020 after authorities cloistered the compound to prevent the spread of the virus, weeks before it propagated to the rest of Europe.
Other epidemics, such as an outbreak of Ebola in 2014, have also affected the islands, whose economy relies heavily on tourism. The archipelago has also complained that it has had to bear the brunt of a migration crisis from Western Africa.
“We are a community that’s already quite flexible when it comes to helping others and being accommodating to people, but I think this is excessive,” said local resident Margarita Maria, 62. “People are scared, people are worried. Spain is a huge country with plenty of ports where the cruise ship could go.”
The World Health Organization says the risk to the public remains low and the variant detected among passengers can spread between humans only through close, prolonged contact.
Nevertheless, the news was stirring fears that hospitals and health centres on Tenerife would have to be locked down, said a nurse who asked not to be identified.
“It will be just like Covid … People are worried about their children, elderly relatives and the vulnerable,” the nurse said, adding that the islands’ quarantine protocol for viruses, if one was declared, would affect schools and healthcare centres.
All the passengers left on board the ship were not presenting symptoms of the disease and would be repatriated to their countries, while the 14 Spaniards on board would be flown to a hospital in Madrid to quarantine, Spanish Health Minister Monica Garcia said on Wednesday.
Some residents complained that the Canaries’ status as a safe destination meant it always had to shoulder responsibilities other tourist markets shirk.
“Tourist destinations competing with the Canary Islands in the international market, such as Morocco, have not been taken into account, and the decision has been made to bring the cruise ship to the Canary Islands – there must be a reason for that,” said Jorge Marichal, president of Tenerife’s hotels association, Ashotel.
Madrid has failed to communicate what was expected of the archipelago, which was making it difficult to assuage the tourism industry, said the regional government’s tourism minister, Lope Afonso.
Some Canarians worried it could have an impact on Pope Leo’s scheduled visit to the Canaries in June.
“Can you imagine the Pope with hantavirus? That’s a headline we don’t want,” local comedian Omayra Cazorla said on Instagram.
(Reporting by Corina Pons and Borja Suarez; writing by Charlie Devereux, Editing by William Maclean)
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