The Secretary of State for Health, Javier Padilla, and the Secretary General for Civil Protection and Emergencies, Virginia Barcones, have detailed - in a public appearance - how the disembarkation process in Tenerife of the passengers of the HV Hondius, the ship affected by a hantavirus outbreak, will be.
The protocol will only begin when the plane taking them to their respective states is "ready to take off, only at that moment," said Barcones, who also anticipated that the ship could arrive in the Canary Islands earlier than expected.
"There will be no interaction with the civilian population"
According to Barcones, only once the aircraft for repatriations to their places of origin of the passengers is ready will their disembarkation proceed. Once on land they will go by bus to the airport. There they would arrive directly on the tarmac and board the plane.
"All the areas that are going to be traversed will be isolated. There will be no contact with the civilian population," Barcones emphasized.
Regarding the cruise ship, out of the 61 crew members that compose it, it has been confirmed that with 30 crew members it can continue its course towards the Netherlands and that is the idea.
In this regard, Spain is already working on offering all the necessary refueling and resupply resources so that it can complete its journey without problems.
A Spanish woman isolated in Alicante due to contact with a person who died from hantavirus
During the appearance, Javier Padilla specified that a Spanish woman who was sitting two rows behind the second deceased from hantavirus on the flight from Johannesburg to Amsterdam, on which she tried to board, presents symptoms compatible with the virus.
Padilla has announced that she is isolated in the Alicante Hospital, where they are doing all the pertinent tests.
However, the Secretary of State for Health has highlighted the difficulty of contagion given the short time the woman affected by hanavirus spent on the aircraft.