90-Second Read: American passengers from Hantavirus-hit cruise ship arrive back in the U.S.

The luxury cruise ship arrived early Sunday at the island of Tenerife, the largest of Spain's Canary Islands off West Africa, where passengers started repatriating to their home countries. American and global health officials have stressed throughout the outbreak that the risk to the wider public is low and that transmission is limited to close contact. A woman who was among five French passengers repatriated Sunday to Paris has tested positive for Hantavirus, and her health worsened in the hospital overnight, French Health Minister Stephanie Rist said Monday. Those two Americans traveled in the plane's biocontainment units "out of an abundance of caution," the Department of Health and Human Services said in a statement.

Passengers received health screenings upon arrival in Spain, the country's Health Ministry said in a statement. The American passengers range in age from the late 20s to the early 80s. Hondius passengers will stay at UNMC for a few days for assessments and next steps, but a full 42-day monitoring period will be required for all of those who were on the ship, Jackson said. Most of the Americans were taken to a facility in Nebraska, but two, a passenger on the ship and a close contact, were taken to Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, officials said.

Let me be crystal clear: the risk of Hantavirus to the general public remains very, very low. The two other passengers were taken to Emory University's Serious Communicable Diseases unit in Atlanta, with one receiving care in the biocontainment unit for mild symptoms. Having symptoms does not necessarily mean a patient has contracted Hantavirus, Jackson said. Tests have confirmed that two of the three people who died had Hantavirus.

Jackson said the decision to send two passengers to Atlanta was "contingency planning" to keep spaces open at Omaha's UNMC should they need more room. All passengers and a "limited" number of crewmembers had disembarked from the Hondius by Monday, and the ship, with 27 crewmembers remaining on board, is sailing to Rotterdam in the Netherlands, Oceanwide Expeditions said. A World Health Organization investigation is underway to pinpoint the origin of this outbreak, with particular attention placed on a bird-watching trip in southern Argentina, which the first passenger to die took part in before joining the cruise.