This is, indeed, the only humane course of action — the passengers must be checked and released.
And the Canary Islands provide a nice, and natural hard limit — on how far any “contects” infection might be spread. Good epidemic abatement bio-science.
Kudos to the Spanish government, for stepping up. The Hondius will now make port at Spain’s Canary Islands… and there the passengers will be screened, as they disembark. Here’s the latest from CBS:
…Spain has agreed to welcome the cruise ship at the center of a rare hantavirus outbreak, with three people now dead after coming down with the illness, according to the World Health Organization.
[A] Dutch woman, whose husband died onboard two weeks earlier, got off the boat with “gastrointestinal symptoms” on April 24 and died two days later, after her condition “deteriorated during a flight to Johannesburg,” the WHO said. “Contact tracing for passengers on the flight has been initiated,” it added.
On Tuesday, the WHO’s epidemic and pandemic preparedness and prevention director, Maria Van Kerkhove, told journalists Spanish authorities “have said that they will welcome the ship to do a full investigation, a full epidemiologic investigation, full disinfection of the ship and of course… assess the risk of the passengers that are actually on board. . . .”
The agency said Tuesday that it’s current plan is to evacuate two sick passengers to the Netherlands, then for the ship to continue on to Spain’s Canary Islands….
This is nice progress — and backed by solid bio-science. Onward. Eighteen inches of new snow expected here by midday tomorrow — Woot! [Though often these Late Spring Rockies Blizzards Die out, and turn to rain — so we shall see. But we are. . . ready — either way. Smile.]
नमस्ते
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