{"text":[[{"start":9.05,"text":"The cruise ship hit by the rat-borne hantavirus arrived early on Sunday in the Canary Islands, where infectious disease doctors and emergency aircraft have massed to evacuate almost 150 people on board."}],[{"start":21.75,"text":"The ship, the MV Hondius, entered the port of Granadilla in Tenerife at about 6am local time while multiple national governments organise repatriation flights and quarantine procedures for their citizens."}],[{"start":35.4,"text":"The evacuation in Tenerife, which is due to begin later on Sunday morning, marks the most critical step yet in the brewing hantavirus crisis, which has killed three people."}],[{"start":45.45,"text":"It has drawn comparisons with the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic, but health officials stress the risk to the general public from illness is low because the virus requires close contact to spread."}],[{"start":57.7,"text":"Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the World Health Organization, travelled to Tenerife on Saturday to help oversee the arrival of 147 people, which is being led by the Spanish government."}],[{"start":70.9,"text":"Mónica García, Spain’s health minister, said: “This is an unprecedented operation on an international scale.”"}],[{"start":77.75,"text":"The hantavirus outbreak now comprises six confirmed cases and two probable cases, including the three cruise passengers who have died."}],[{"start":85.55,"text":"The response has been complicated by the disease’s incubation time of up to eight weeks and a cruise itinerary that involved multiple stops on remote Atlantic islands with limited medical facilities."}],[{"start":96.64999999999999,"text":"After infectious disease specialists have boarded the ship in Tenerife to assess the 87 passengers and 60 crew, most will disembark in small groups by nationality, starting with 14 Spaniards."}],[{"start":108.55,"text":"Provided they are symptom-free, the Spaniards will be flown on a military jet to Madrid where they will go into hospital quarantine for several weeks."}],[{"start":117.8,"text":"There are more than 20 British citizens on the Hondius. They will be met by UK officials in Tenerife and escorted to a flight home. UK health authorities said on Saturday that they would be taken to a hospital in north-west England for an initial isolation period of up to 72 hours, after which they will be asked to isolate at home for 45 days."}],[{"start":140.25,"text":"US nationals on the ship will be evacuated to an air force base in Nebraska, then transported to a nearby national quarantine centre in Omaha, said the US Centers for Disease Control."}],[{"start":151.3,"text":"Fernando Grande-Marlaska, Spain’s interior minister, said: “Only when the aircraft bound for a specific country is on the runway, ready to depart for that country, will that country’s nationals be disembarked and taken ashore in small boats.”"}],[{"start":166.55,"text":"Passengers with symptoms could be sent into isolation in a Tenerife hospital, but final decisions on how they would be handled have not been made, said a health ministry official."}],[{"start":176.05,"text":"Unease over the evacuation has grown in Tenerife, with one union of port workers threatening to blockade the facility."}],[{"start":183.3,"text":"In a letter to the island’s people on Saturday, Tedros acknowledged the anxiety, but wrote: “I need you to hear me loud and clear: this is not another Covid outbreak. The current public health risk posed by hantavirus remains low. My colleagues and I have stated this unequivocally, and I repeat it now.”"}],[{"start":204.85000000000002,"text":"The outbreak is caused by the Andes hantavirus, which is carried by rodents and often spread via their excreta. It is thought to have been brought on to the Hondius by a Dutch couple who had been on a birdwatching trip to Argentina, Chile and Uruguay. The husband died on the ship and his wife died in Johannesburg after leaving the vessel in St Helena."}],[{"start":225.65000000000003,"text":"The disease’s fatality ratio can reach 50 per cent and it is particularly dangerous to older people, the WHO warned. The average age of passengers on the Hondius is 65, it added."}],[{"start":237.40000000000003,"text":"Of the five confirmed or suspected hantavirus cases who are still alive, four are in hospital — two in the Netherlands and one each in South Africa and Switzerland. The fifth person is on the island of Tristan da Cunha, a British overseas territory."}],[{"start":253.75000000000003,"text":"Two people who spent time on a plane with the Dutch woman who died have been hospitalised in Spain as a precaution. Another person from the same plane is being monitored in South Africa and Italy’s health ministry said on Saturday it was keeping a further four people under surveillance."}],[{"start":272.70000000000005,"text":"Additional reporting by Amy Kazmin in Rome"}],[{"start":282.35,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1778397530_2055.mp3"}