The small cruise ship at the centre of global fears around the spread of a new and deadly disease has become a tourist attraction. The MV Hondius recently anchored near the Granadillo commercial port, and has since seen holidaymakers flock close to it, to see what all the fuss is about.
As reported by TheGuardian, some are looking at the ship from a safe distance with binoculars, while others are getting as close as they can. The ship is being evacuated, with its passengers heading back to their home countries. Passengers from the UK are being quarantined in the Wirral, while they're checked over for symptoms of hantavirus. Already, passengers who've returned back to the US and France have tested positive for the disease.
Amy Byres and Emma Armitage - two holidaymakers in Tenerife celebrating a 22nd birthday - spent their holiday fascinated by the MV Hondius. "We saw this at the start of our trip - we arrived on Monday - and we've been following it all week on TikTok," said Byres. "We were looking at TikTok trying to find out where it was and then we saw the name of the port and came here. It's just really interesting, isn't it?"
Considering we're just a few years removed from the end of the COVID-19 pandemic, fears of another disease spreading across the globe aren't unfounded. However, health professionals have noted that the hantavirus cases are nothing like the start of COVID's spread across the world.