Russian Embassy in Netherlands Has Not Received Help Requests from Citizen on Hantavirus-Hit Ship

THE HAGUE, May 16. /TASS/. The Russian embassy in the Netherlands has not received requests for help from the Russian citizen working on the Dutch liner MV Hondius, where a hantavirus broke out, an embassy source told TASS.

"We have not received any appeals from the Russian citizen working on the MV Hondius cruise ship," the source said, adding the embassy is ready, if necessary, to provide assistance "within its competence."

On the evening of May 11, MV Hondius sailed from Tenerife port in the Canary Islands to the Netherlands. On May 12, the World Health Organization reported 11 cases of hantavirus infection on board, but the estimate was later lowered to 10 cases. Three people died, and one patient is in a Johannesburg hospital.

In April, the liner left Argentina and headed to the final destination of the cruise - the Canary Islands. There were about 150 people on board, mostly citizens of Great Britain, Spain, the Netherlands and the US.

The source said the embassy is in contact with the relevant Dutch agencies regarding the situation on MV Hondius.

"We are closely monitoring this story and are in contact with the relevant structures of the kingdom, including the Foreign Ministry of the Netherlands," the source said.

The source also pointed out that decisions on the quarantine of crew members are made "by the competent sanitary and port authorities individually, together with the sea carrier."

The source said the embassy believed the measures taken by the Dutch side at the current stage to be sufficient.

On May 15, the Hart van Nederland portal reported that the Dutch authorities will prepare 23 portable residential modules in the port of Rotterdam, in which Hondius crew members who are not citizens of the kingdom will spend six weeks in mandatory quarantine. There are 27 people on board the ship, which sailed from the Canary Islands to the Netherlands on May 11, including 25 crew members and two employees of the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment. Two members of the ship's crew, as well as both employees of the institute, are Dutch nationals, so they will be quarantined at home. The remaining 23 people, including one Russian citizen, as well as citizens of Poland, Ukraine and the Philippines, will be accommodated in Rotterdam harbor.