Two people who were on the MV Hondius have tested positive for Hantavirus after disembarking the ship.
Passengers flew home via military and government planes as the ship was anchored in the Canary Islands, The Associated Press reported.
The passengers were escorted from the ship to Tenerife by personnel in full protective gear.
Three cruise passengers have died due to the outbreak, which was the first hantavirus outbreak on a cruise ship, the World Health Organization’s Maria Van Kerkhove, director of epidemic and pandemic preparedness, the AP said.
One American, who was flown to Nebraska, tested positive for hantavirus but has not shown symptoms, while a second has mild symptoms. As for the person who tested positive, the Department of Health and Human Services said they tested “mildly P.C.R. positive, The New York Times reported.
Two were flown in specialized biocontainment units as a precaution, the newspaper said.
In all, 17 Americans were flown back to the U.S. A British national who lives in the U.S. was also on the flight, CNN reported.
They were taken to the University of Nebraska Medical Facility, a federally funded quarantine facility, to determine if they had been in close contact with symptomatic people and the risk of their spreading the illness.
The person who tested positive was taken to the Nebraska Biocontainment Unit while the others were taken to the National Quarantine Unit.
One unit at the university was used in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic and during Ebola outbreaks.
An official with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said earlier that the agency is not considering it a quarantine, but instead a short visit to monitor health, according to CNN.
Some may be taken to Regional Emerging Special Pathogen Treatment Centers once their risk is determined, while others will be given the option to go home, the National Institutes of Health Director, Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, told CNN over the weekend.
The CDC will give passengers deemed low risk, meaning they were not in contact with someone who was symptomatic, “an offer to stay in Nebraska if they’d like, or if they want to go back home and their home situation allows it, to safely drive them home without exposing other people on the way, and then be put in the control … under the auspices of their state and local public health agencies," Bhattacharya said.
Those who go home will be monitored daily for the next 42 days.
Seven other passengers who disembarked from the cruise earlier are being monitored in five states — Arizona, California, Georgia, Texas and Virginia, CNN reported.
New Jersey is monitoring two passengers while Utah had at least one.
Five French passengers returned to their country on Sunday. A woman has tested positive, and her health got worse overnight as she remained hospitalized. She developed symptoms on the flight to Paris, French Health Minister Stephanie Rist said.
All five on the flight will be under isolation protocols, CNN reported.
Other countries said passengers from the MV Hondius will be quarantined or hospitalized for observation, the AP reported.
Hantavirus is usually spread through rodent droppings and is not typically spread from person to person; however, the Andes variant can spread through close contact, the Times reported. Symptoms such as fever, chills, and muscle aches can develop 1 to 8 weeks after exposure.
The WHO said the public should not be concerned about a widespread outbreak.
“This is not another COVID. And the risk to the public is low. So they shouldn’t be scared, and they shouldn’t panic‚" the international agency’s Director-General, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.
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