The Secretary of State for Health, Javier Padilla, has indicated that none of the travelers on the ship MV Hondius, affected by a hantavirus outbreak, have expressed rejection to complying with the quarantine when they are transferred to the Gómez Ulla Military Hospital in Madrid from the port of Granadilla de Abona, in Tenerife, to where the technical team of the Ministry of Health will also travel tomorrow.
In an interview on "La hora de la 1" on TVE, reported by Europa Press, he detailed that Spain has asked the EU health authorities to set a common protocol, although the country is developing its own with specialists in the field.
Padilla has indicated that he maintains direct contact with the 14 Spaniards traveling on the ship and that they "are well, they have no symptoms". He added that, despite having lived through complicated moments, their mood has improved since they left Cape Verde and that they are eager to return to Spain.
"None have expressed any opposition to me in that regard," he stressed in relation to the quarantine that the 14 Spanish passengers will have to complete once they leave the cruise ship and are transferred to the mainland. He is confident that they will accept it "voluntarily," even knowing that it may be "long and tedious," and considers that, after what "they must have gone through on that vessel," no conflicts are foreseen.
Consent Document and Legal Framework for Quarantine
Within the protocol in preparation, it has been decided to present the affected parties with a document for them to sign their conformity with the quarantine. In case of refusal, Padilla has recalled the existence of the law of April 14, 1986, on Special Measures in Public Health, which empowers the Government to adopt exceptional decisions. The Ministry's legal team already has the necessary instruments prepared, although it is expected not to have to resort to them.
He stressed that the measures contemplated in said norm must be directed "at a specific population, that they be proportional, that they be well justified, ensuring all the fundamental rights of the population" and, at the same time, must serve to "preserve the good of public health". If it were essential to apply them, the ministerial order would have to be endorsed by the judicial authority for those who were obliged to comply with it.
Regarding the duration of the quarantine, he indicated that it will be reviewed case by case based on the last risky contact of each passenger. He also recalled that contact control measures have already been implemented on board the ship to minimize the chances of transmission.
Coordination with the EU and European reference protocol
In parallel, he has pointed out that work is being done with the European Union to establish "general guidelines" on quarantines. Several member states have stated that they will wait for Spain to publish its own protocol to follow the recommendations of its technicians.
Padilla has avoided entering into the political controversy derived from the criticism of the president of the Canary Islands for the supposed lack of information. He has limited himself to indicating that the minister has maintained communication with him and that, since Tuesday, daily meetings have been held with the Canary technical teams, at 9:00 AM and 7:00 PM. They are, he said, "meetings that take place in a climate of total and absolute institutional cooperation" and, although there are sometimes disagreements, everyone shares the same priority: that everything "turns out well".
Relationship with the Canary Islands and decision for the ship to anchor
In this regard, he has insisted that he has "no reproach to make" to the archipelago's authorities and has announced that tomorrow the ministerial team will foreseeably travel to the site, where external health services have already been working for "many days" together with the Ministry of Health and the Government of the Canary Islands.
The Secretary of State has downplayed the change in the Executive's initial criterion, which first spoke of the ship docking and then specified that it was going to anchor. In his opinion, decisions are being "refined" as work with technicians progresses: "what we are sure of is that we are going to do it with all the security measures and we are going to have technical and scientific knowledge and at an international level with the EU and the WHO".
He admitted that, in order to opt for anchoring, "elements of concern" expressed in the Canary Islands, which leaned towards this alternative, have been valued. However, he clarified that this does not imply that there was "epidemiological risk". He recalled that, in addition to the crew and passengers, two Dutch infectologists, a representative of the WHO and another from the European center for infectious disease control are traveling on board, who are helping to assess the situation of the ship, which is, he said, in "perfect conditions of order and cleanliness".
Destination of the Hondius, disinfection and repatriation operation
After the passengers disembark, the MV Hondius will continue its route to the Netherlands, according to Padilla, although he has not specified when its disinfection will take place. In any case, he assured that it will be carried out "at the most appropriate time and place and without any risk to the civilian population of the Canary Islands or to the workers who will be part of the operation".
In relation to the repatriation, he has explained, in line with what was previously stated by the Director of Civil Protection, Virginia Barcones, also on TVE, that three levels have been established: firstly, the return of Spanish citizens, coordinated by the Ministry of Defense; secondly, that of nationals of other European Union countries, recalling that the Netherlands assumes specific responsibility for being the flag country of the ship; and, thirdly, the evacuation of passengers from non-EU countries.
Regarding the latter, he has indicated that the US has sent a plane with disease control personnel to repatriate its citizens and that the United Kingdom has also committed to evacuating its own. He added that, around eleven in the morning, a meeting is planned with the governments that have shown their commitment to clear up all doubts. The intention, as Barcones also pointed out, is to finalize the definitive evacuation roadmap throughout the day.
It is, he has remarked, a large-scale device that involves 22 countries and that foresees the staggered disembarkation of passengers as the different flights destined for their evacuation arrive.