90-Second Read: American passenger on Hantavirus-hit cruise feels 'blindsided,' 'misled' by new quarantine orders

Public health officials have repeatedly stressed that the risk to the public from the Andes Hantavirus is low. In news briefings last week, CDC officials said they were assessing passengers and were working with state and local health departments to allow them to quarantine at home. On the call Sunday, the Americans at the National Quarantine Center were told that the strategy had shifted because three passengers, from Spain, France and Canada, had tested positive after they'd gotten off the ship on May 10.

Until Sunday night, some passengers expected to be allowed to return home as early as this week to complete the remaining 42 days of quarantine. One passenger, who asked not to be identified out of fear his family could be harassed, said his local health department had drawn up a quarantine order that would have allowed him to live in a guest house on his parents' property. The health department contact he was working with in his home county seemed to be unaware of the change in strategy, he said, as were the CDC staff working with the passengers in the quarantine unit.

Another person in quarantine said he expected some changes as more new cases were confirmed among passengers from other countries. Kornfeld is now in quarantine with the other American passengers in Nebraska. At least two passengers were formally ordered to stay in quarantine in Nebraska after they pushed to leave.