The rat virus cruise ship has finally docked in Tenerife despite threats by port staff and locals to sabotage its evacuation plans.
But the 22 Britons in need of rescue may still have to remain on the distressed ship for almost eight more harrowing hours before they are finally taken on a flight home as a high-risk health operation gets underway.
The doomed MV Hondius arrived at the island just after 5.30 am as Foreign Office health officials waited anxiously on land.
About 150 people aboard the boat spent several days fearing for their lives, hiding in a floating death trap near the African islands.
Officials are now facing race All passengers and crew were disembarked ahead of schedule Season Hits the island.
Doctors will head to the bird watching ship and screen all passengers and crew on board before a difficult and time-consuming operation to land them safely.
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It comes like this…
Only those who do not show symptoms of rat plague hantavirus will disembark, starting with the Spanish who will fly to a military hospital in Madrid.
Cleared passengers and “a limited number of crew” will begin disembarkation at around 8am.
They will be brought to land using Zodiac craft and launch boats, while the luggage will remain on board.
Hondius will then continue towards Rotterdam while trying to avoid the impending storm.
Non-Spanish passengers will be transported in groups of five according to nationality once their planes are ready.
Asymptomatic Britons will be taken by bus 10 minutes to Tenerife South Airport, where a Titan Airways jet chartered by the Foreign Office will fly them home.
The plane left Stansted Airport at 10 am and is scheduled to arrive at 3 pm.
They will fly back to the UK and isolate for 45 days at Arrowe Park Hospital in Wirral, Merseyside – the same hospital where returnees were isolated China After the outbreak of Covid.
Three people on the ship have died after getting the bug, and there have been three other confirmed cases – including British crew member Mark Anstey, who is being treated in hospital in the Netherlands after being airlifted from the ship.
but riot Police Port staff and locals stood ready throughout the day to intervene after threatening to halt the high-risk global health campaign.
Furious protesters demonstrate outside the Canary Islands Parliament on Friday and threatened to block the Twitch boat if their health concerns were not met.
Members of the Tenerife Port Workers (TPT) union have rallied against the Spanish government’s decision to allow the Hondius to dock at Granadilla port in the south of the island.
TPT union spokeswoman Elena Ruiz said: “We are ready to block the port if we do not get answers to our concerns.”
Locals also considered blocking the single access road to the port.
Dozens of police, including a riot van, patrolled the port and entrance.
A source said: “Officers have secured the area and are ready to deploy if needed to ensure the process is completed.”
The protests threatened to prolong the evacuation process even further, which could ruin the entire operation due to the rough sea conditions to come.
Disembarkation of passengers is likely to be a lengthy process to ensure there is no danger to other people on the island.
But local governors claimed the complex operation had a small window of opportunity and might have to be canceled if it was not completed within 24 hours.
Regional Canary Islands government spokesman Alfonso Cabello warned that bad weather meant “the window is very limited”.
He insisted that if the evacuation was not completed before bad sea conditions worsened on Monday the ship would have to proceed with the passengers on board – otherwise they would be stranded until mid-May.
Crews had been working hard since yesterday morning to prepare the site for the arrival of the MV Hondius. This included setting up a field hospital with supplies and stretchers.
Meanwhile, the director-general of the World Health Organization yesterday desperately tried to calm tensions in an open letter to locals, saying he knew they were “concerned”, but insisted: “This is not another Covid.”
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus wrote in an open letter to concerned locals: “I know you are worried. I know that when you hear the word ‘outbreak’ and see a ship heading towards your shores, memories come to the surface that none of us have ever fully quelled.
“The pain of 2020 is still real, and I don’t dismiss it for a moment.
“But I want you to hear me clearly: This is not another COVID. The current public health risk from hantavirus remains low.”
He said that Tenerife was chosen “because it has the medical capacity, infrastructure and humanity to help (those on board) reach safety”, adding: “Because I believe in it so deeply, I will be there myself.”
And he reiterated at a press conference last night that local concerns were “legitimate”, but added: “We have all experienced Covid. That trauma is still on our minds.
“People will have questions, concerns, that’s what I tried to address in my letter to the people of Tenerife.”
Last night, patient zero was identified as Leo Schilperord, a 70-year-old ornithologist who boarded the ship with his 69-year-old wife Mirjam.
It is believed he got the virus from a rat in Argentina after visiting a landfill site on March 27.
The birdwatching hotspot is home to a rare species of Patagonian bird, including the white-bellied seedsnipe.
The couple, from the small village of Hollerwijk in the Netherlands, was on a five-month trip to South America.
leo He was the first patient on the ship to die from the virus.
The captain announced the horrific news the next day, but said he believed the passenger died of “natural causes”.
“I’ve been told by the doctor that we are not contagious,” he can be heard saying in footage recorded by Turkish travel vlogger Ruhi Senet.
Two weeks later, his wife Mirjam disembarked from the plane with his body but died while trying to board a plane from South Africa to the Netherlands.
Just a day later, a 69-year-old British man was evacuated with high fever, shortness of breath and symptoms of pneumonia.
He is currently being treated in an intensive care unit in Johannesburg.
Health officials one after another tested stricken Britons for hantavirus, with widespread tests coming back negative.
The diagnosis was officially made on 2 May, three weeks after the death of the first passenger.
The same day, a third passenger – a German woman – died on board the ship after suffering symptoms caused by hantavirus, and her body remained on board.
