In Tenerife, memories of Covid are freshpublished at 18:11 BST 6 May
Guy Hedgecoe
Reporting from Tenerife
Locals in Santa Cruz, the port town in the north of Tenerife, offer a mixed reaction when asked about the imminent arrival of the MV Hondius to the island.
“As long as it only docks here, that’s fine,” says Rafael, a taxi driver. “I imagine there will be a lot of security.”
But others express more concern. “The mortality rate of this illness is very high,” says José Enrique, an ice cream seller. “It does worry me, yes. It’s normal to be afraid.”
Memories of Covid are still fresh and that pandemic is an obvious reference point for some.
“It’s not right that [the boat] is stopping here, the passengers should just be sent straight back to their countries,” says Candelaria, a cleaner. “They could infect us. It’s like the pandemic.”
When the boat arrives at the Canary Islands, there will be a medical assessment of those on board. The passengers will be repatriated, if they are not symptomatic, except for the Spaniards, who will be transferred to a military hospital in Madrid for observation.
The local government’s opposition to the boat’s docking in the Canary Islands has created a political storm but there appears to be little it can do to prevent it, given that the central government is responsible for border controls and the handling of health crises.
Fernando Clavijo, the Canary Island president, has expressed frustration in the past at the arrival of large numbers of migrants to the archipelago in small boats. That situation has seen drawn-out political stalemates, as the central government sought to persuade other regions to take in some of the arrivals.
Image source, Getty ImagesThe virus-hit cruise ship is due to arrive in Granadilla de Abona, in the south of Tenerife, in around three days
