Several European countries are dispatching aircraft to evacuate their citizens from the Dutch-flagged cruise ship MV Hondius, which has been hit by a hantavirus outbreak, Spanish authorities said on Saturday.
The vessel, carrying 147 people, is headed for Spain's Canary Islands. It is expected to arrive between 04:00 and 06:00 local time Sunday (03:00-05:00 GMT) at Tenerife, the largest and most populous of the Canary Islands. Three passengers have died and five others have been confirmed infected since the outbreak emerged after the ship departed from Cape Verde.
Germany, France, Belgium, Ireland and the Netherlands will send planes to bring home their nationals, Spanish Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska Gomez announced on Saturday. The European Union will provide two additional aircraft for other EU citizens on board. The United States and the United Kingdom are arranging contingency plans for non-EU nationals without air service options.
According to British media reports, the 22 British nationals on board, including 19 passengers and three crew members, will undergo a 45‑day quarantine upon returning to the UK on Sunday. They will be transferred to a hospital dormitory complex in Merseyside, northwest England.
The UK Health Security Agency confirmed earlier on Friday that two British citizens having contracted hantavirus are receiving treatment in the Netherlands and South Africa respectively.
World Health Organization (WHO) Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Saturday reassured the residents on the island of Tenerife that the public health risk remained low.
In an open letter to Canary Islands residents, Tedros acknowledged local concerns but stressed, "This is not another COVID."
"The current public health risk from hantavirus remains low," he said, adding that WHO experts and medical supplies were already onboard the vessel.
Spanish Health Minister Monica Garcia said Spanish passengers will disembark first. All passengers and medical transfer personnel must wear protective gear. The bodies of the deceased, along with their luggage and some crew members, will remain on board. The ship will then sail to the Netherlands for full disinfection.
Garcia said that after three suspected cases or close contacts were identified on Friday, no new suspected cases have emerged in Spain, and the risk to the general public remains low.
European nations to fly citizens off Hantavirus-hit cruise ship
European nations to fly citizens off Hantavirus-hit cruise ship
European nations to fly citizens off Hantavirus-hit cruise ship
China's economic development picked up steadily in April, with key indicators pointing to broad-based improvements in infrastructure activity and a sharp move of capital toward advanced technology sectors, according to the data released Sunday by the State Information Center(SIC), a think tank under the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC).
The data showed that in the investment landscape, the average operating rate of national construction machinery rose by 3.6 percentage points month on month in April.
Port logistics, heavy lifting, and civil construction all recorded rebounds, signaling steady progress in infrastructure construction.
Concrete equipment, as key construction machinery, saw a notable rebound in activity, with its operating rate increasing by around 5 percentage points both year on year and month on month.
"Municipal infrastructure, transport projects, industrial parks, urban renewal -- all types of projects are being rolled out across the board. For major projects in various regions, efforts are being made to seize the construction window and accelerate the pace. This also reflects that physical investment in infrastructure, industry, and urban construction is picking up speed, and investment vitality is steadily improving," said Shen Chunfeng, a big data expert from iRootech, a company that helps businesses achieve intelligent transformation by applying technologies such as industrial intelligence and embodied intelligent robots.
April marks the peak construction season in many regions.
More than 10 provinces and municipalities, including Anhui, Beijing, Ningxia, and Zhejiang, ranked among the top in terms of comprehensive operating rates. "Domestic engineering construction is moving from localized improvement to nationwide pickup. The coverage of projects starting work has expanded greatly, market activity is broadening, and the positive trend in real economy investment and infrastructure construction is further consolidating," said Shen.
Investment is also moving faster from traditional sectors toward new arenas.
According to fresh data from the SIC, capital investment in frontier areas such as artificial intelligence (AI) and humanoid robots jumped 175.2 percent year on year in April.
The value of winning bids for infrastructure projects in data, computing power, and networks rose 61.7 percent year on year, continuing to activate new drivers of economic growth.
"In April, China saw strong investment momentum in frontier fields. Investment activity in digital infrastructure grew rapidly, and the ability of sectors such as AI to attract capital is notable. This shows that, with coordinated efforts from both the government and the market, investment is concentrating more quickly on new tracks -- providing a strong boost to the development of new quality productive forces and steadily strengthening the foundations for high-quality economic development," said Xing Yuguan, an associate researcher of the Big Data Development Department under the SIC.
China’s economic momentum strengthens as infrastructure activity rises, frontier investment surges
