90-Second Read: 3 people in Maryland and Virginia are being monitored for Hantavirus

Maryland and Virginia officials monitor 3 people after a deadly Hondius cruise ship Hantavirus outbreak and a flight exposure. Three people in Maryland and Virginia are being monitored for Hantavirus for 42 days after being exposed. Three people in Maryland and Virginia are being monitored for Hantavirus following a deadly outbreak on a luxury cruise ship. Maryland health officials are monitoring two people who may have been exposed when they took a flight abroad that briefly included an infected passenger from the Hondius ship. Local health officials are monitoring the former ship passenger.

Health officials say everyone will be tracked and monitored for 42 days, which is the virus's incubation period. In a press briefing Monday, CDC Head of Hantavirus Response David Fitter said that the strain of Hantavirus identified on the cruise ship, the Andes virus, was very low risk of becoming a wider public health emergency because it typically spreads through very close contact. Hantavirus was last identified in Maryland in 2019, and no Andes virus infections have ever been reported in the state, the health department said. They disembarked and flew home before the outbreak was identified. We don't know where the person lives; health officials are not releasing much information because of privacy concerns.

At this time, the risk to the public in Maryland remains very low," the Maryland Department of Health said in a statement, noting it wouldn't release further information to protect their privacy. Health officials say that individual is doing well and not exhibiting any symptoms, but fewer than five other Virginians may have been exposed. Maryland health officials say they're coordinating across all levels of government, plus with leading experts and medical facilities. The Virginia Department of Health says it's working with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and local health departments to respond. Jodie Guest, the Senior Vice Chair of Emory University's Department of Epidemiology, said.

Two of them are in biocontainment units in Omaha, Nebraska, and Atlanta. State and local health departments will do the monitoring, Guest said. There's certainly going to be this continual contact tracing and surveillance of the symptoms.