90-Second Read: Americans onboard Hantavirus cruise ship to be repatriated to US

The 17 Americans onboard the Hantavirus -stricken cruise ship M/V Hondius, including one person who has tested positive, have disembarked the vessel after it docked in Tenerife on Sunday and are being repatriated to the US. Upon their arrival in Spain, medical teams from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) awaited and interviewed the passengers, whose identities have not been publicly disclosed and who have not tested positive for the virus, about their exposure on the cruise. Of the 17 Americans being repatriated, one had mild symptoms of Hantavirus and another had tested mildly PCR positive for the Andes strain of the virus, the US health and human services department (HHS) confirmed on Sunday night. The passengers are due to arrive in Nebraska on a special chartered flight, the authorities said.

Those two passengers were travelling in the plane's biocontainment units, it added. The US state department's airlift would transport passengers to the ASPR regional emerging special pathogen treatment center (RESPTC) at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, and the passenger with mild symptoms would be taken to a second RESPTC, the HHS said. Starting from May 10, [we recommend] 42 days with active follow-up, 42 days of quarantine but it could be in a facility or at home.

If they weren't in close contact with someone who was symptomatic, then we're going to deem them low risk. On Saturday, a CDC official told reporters on a call: "We are not quarantining anybody," according to ABC, adding that "it is not recommended to test people that do not have symptoms".