It had been ​carrying around 150 passengers and crew from ⁠23 countries when a cluster of severe respiratory illnesses was first reported to the World Health Organization on May 2

International News via Reuters:

A luxury polar explorer at the centre of an outbreak of hantavirus docked at the Dutch port of Rotterdam on Monday, where authorities were quarantining the last 27 people to disembark and planned to cremate a German who died.

The Dutch-flagged MV Hondius cruise was to be disinfected.

It had been ​carrying around 150 passengers and crew from ⁠23 countries when a cluster of severe respiratory illnesses was first reported to the World Health Organization on May 2. 

Three people have died. The bodies of a Dutch couple have been repatriated, while a German victim was to be cremated in the Netherlands with her ashes then sent home.

Including the three deaths, there have been eight confirmed and two probable cases on board, according to WHO.

Hantavirus is primarily spread by rodents but can be transmitted between people ​in rare cases and after prolonged, close contact. Incubation can last about six weeks. 

There is no specific treatment for infection.

The WHO insists the wider threat to public health remains low and there is no comparison with the COVID epidemic.

“There is no risk for Rotterdam and no risk in that sense,” said Tjalling Leenstra, head of the Dutch coordination centre for communicable disease control at the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM).

All those exposed are under monitoring and quarantine, he added.

The vessel, operated by Oceanwide Expeditions, had been stranded off Cape Verde, its intended final destination, earlier this month after authorities barred remaining passengers from going ashore.

The WHO and EU asked Spain to manage the evacuation at the Canary Islands, after which the ship departed for Rotterdam with a skeleton crew of 25 people and two additional medical staff.

Two Dutch crew members were going home for quarantine, with other mainly Filipino staff to quarantine in mobile home units in the Rotterdam area, said Yvonne van Duijnhoven, director of the GGD Rotterdam-Rijnmond municipal health service.

Cleaning of the vessel by a specialized company could take up to a week, RIVM said. 

“They wear protective clothing and clean all surfaces in the ship, including the ventilation systems, and each room is assessed individually,” said RIVM spokesperson Coen Berends, noting that cabins of people who tested positive would be considered high-risk areas.

The outbreak involves ​the so-called Andes virus,  a strain which has circulated in Argentina and Chile for decades.

Other crew, passengers and ⁠people in contact with them have also been quarantined in several other countries.

Reporting by Charlotte Van Campenhout and Bart Meijer in Rotterdam; Writing by Michele Kambas; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne

The WHO said the outbreak, caused by the Bundibugyo virus, did not meet the criteria of a pandemic emergency but there was a high risk the disease could spread further to countries sharing land borders with the DRC

International News via Reuters:

An Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda has been declared a public health emergency of international concern by the World Health Organization, after 80 deaths were attributed to the disease.

The WHO said the outbreak, caused by the Bundibugyo virus, did not meet the criteria of a pandemic emergency but there was a high risk the disease could spread further to countries sharing land borders with the DRC.

On Sunday, the U.N. health agency said in a statement that 80 suspected deaths, eight laboratory-confirmed cases and 246 suspected cases had been reported as of Saturday in the DRC’s Ituri province across at least three health zones, including Bunia, Rwampara and Mongbwalu.

One case was confirmed in the eastern Congolese city of Goma, a statement by M23 rebels said.

At least six Americans in the DRC have been exposed to the Ebola virus, with three exposures deemed high risk, CBS News reported, citing unnamed sources with international aid organizations. STAT News said one American may have developed symptoms. Reuters could not immediately verify the reports.

STAT News, which also cited unnamed sources, said the U.S. government was trying to transport the individuals out of the country, possibly to a military base in Germany.

Satish Pillai, Ebola response incident manager at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, declined at a Sunday briefing to say whether any Americans were among those who had been infected but stressed to reporters that the risk to the U.S. remains low.

CDC officials told reporters the agency has activated its emergency response center for the outbreak and plans to send more people to its offices in the DRC and Uganda.

The U.S. Embassy in the DRC issued a health alert on Sunday reminding U.S. citizens that the State Department advises Americans not to travel to the Ituri province and that the U.S. government is “extremely limited in its ability to provide emergency services to U.S. citizens” in the area. 

“Do not travel to this area for any reason,” the alert said.

INTERNATIONAL SPREAD DOCUMENTED, WHO SAYS

The DRC health ministry had said on Friday that 80 people had died in the new outbreak in the eastern province.

The 17th outbreak in the country, where Ebola was first identified in 1976, could in fact be much larger, given the high positivity rate of the initial samples and the increasing number of suspected cases being reported, the WHO said.

The outbreak is “extraordinary” as there are no approved Bundibugyo virus-specific therapeutics or vaccines, unlike for Ebola-Zaire strains, it said. All but one of the country’s previous outbreaks were caused by the Zaire strain.

The DRC-Uganda outbreak poses a public health risk to other countries, with some cases of an international spread already documented, the agency said, advising countries to activate their national disaster and emergency-management mechanisms and undertake cross-border screening and screening at main internal roads.

In Uganda’s capital, Kampala, two apparently unrelated laboratory-confirmed cases, including one death, were reported on Friday and Saturday, from people travelling from the DRC, the WHO said.

The WHO said on Sunday that a previously reported laboratory-confirmed case in Kinshasa, the DRC capital, had tested negative after secondary testing.

Those who have had contact with or cases of the Bundibugyo virus should not travel internationally, unless as part of a medical evacuation, the WHO said.

The agency advised isolating confirmed cases immediately and monitoring contacts daily, with restricted national travel and no international travel until 21 days after exposure. 

At the same time, the WHO urged countries not to close their borders or restrict travel and trade out of fear, as this could lead to people and goods making informal border crossings that are not monitored.

The DRC’s dense tropical forests are a natural reservoir for the Ebola virus.

Jean Kaseya, director general of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, said in a statement that he had requested technical guidance and recommendations on the potential need to declare the outbreak a public health emergency of continental security.

The often-fatal virus, which causes fever, body aches, vomiting and diarrhoea, spreads through direct contact with the bodily fluids of infected persons, contaminated materials or persons who have died from the disease, according to the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.

Reporting by Disha Mishra and Akanksha Khushi in Bengaluru, additional reporting by Kopano Gumbi in Johannesburg, and Yasmeen Abutaleb and Daphne Psaledakis in Washington; Editing by William Mallard, Peter Graff, Nick Zieminski and Neil Fullick

There were two confirmed deaths with one still missing, and four people were sent to the hospital, although none of them had life-threatening injuries, CCTV and state news agency Xinhua said

International News via Reuters:

A magnitude 5.2 earthquake in China’s southwest region of Guangxi early on Monday killed two and forced more than 7,000 in the city of Liuzhou to evacuate as search and rescue operations continue and authorities warn of transport disruptions.

• There were two confirmed deaths with one still missing, and four people were sent to the hospital, although none of them had life-threatening injuries, CCTV and state news agency Xinhua said.

• Thirteen buildings collapsed in the early hours of Monday, state broadcaster CCTV reported.

• Transportation disruptions were also flagged by railway authorities as they inspected the integrity of rail line infrastructure.

• Communication and power lines, water and gas supply, and traffic in the affected area were operating normally, state media reported.

Reporting by Liz Lee and Shanghai newsroom; Editing by Tom Hogue

The new rules would affect businesses in a handful of key sectors like chemicals and industrial machinery, the report added, citing two EU officials familiar with the matter

International News via Reuters:

The European Union is drawing up plans to force companies in the bloc to buy critical components from at least three different suppliers in an attempt to reduce reliance on China, the Financial Times reported on Monday.

The new rules would affect businesses in a handful of key sectors like chemicals and industrial machinery, the report added, citing two EU officials familiar with the matter.  

Under the new legislation companies would be limited to buying about 30% to 40% of components from a single supplier and would have to source the rest from at least three different suppliers not coming from the same country, the FT said.

This comes as China continues to use its chokehold on the processing of many minerals as leverage, at times curbing exports, suppressing prices and undercutting other countries’ ability to diversify their sources of the materials used to make semiconductors, electric vehicles and advanced weapons.

European Union Trade Commissioner Maros Sefcovic is planning a series of punitive tariffs on Chinese chemicals and machinery in a bid to tackle the bloc’s 1 billion euro ($1.16 billion) a day trade deficit and insulate companies from China’s “weaponisation of trade,” the newspaper said.

Last month, Sefcovic signed a memorandum of understanding with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio for a partnership on producing and securing critical minerals, as part of a push to loosen China’s grip on materials crucial to advanced manufacturing.

According to the FT report, these early-stage plans will be presented to a commission meeting dedicated to China on May 29 and could then be endorsed by EU leaders in late June. 

A European Commission spokesperson confirmed to Reuters that it will hold an orientation debate on EU–China relations on May 29 but declined to comment on internal discussions, adding that such debates do not involve the adoption of formal proposals.

($1 = 0.8607 euros)

Reporting by Rhea Rose Abraham and Akanksha Khushi in Bengaluru; additional reporting by Preetika Parashuraman; Editing by Christian Schmollinger and Thomas Derpinghaus