90-Second Read: Covid-19 cruise passengers recall painful memories amid Hantavirus outbreak

Three passengers from the MV Hondius have died, two of whom had confirmed cases of the Andes strain of the Hantavirus and one with a probable case. The Andes strain of the Hantavirus can be spread person-to-person and is typically found in parts of Argentina, including where the cruise ship departed on April 1. According to cruise operator Oceanwide Expeditions' website, the Hondius has 80 cabins that can accommodate up to 170 passengers. State Department said Friday that it is arranging a flight for the 17 American passengers to be brought to a quarantine facility in Nebraska. And that Tuesday, they said, 'Stay in your room and don't come out.'" As more passengers tested positive, the ship implemented strict safety protocols and everyone went on lockdown.

The Spanish Health Ministry released its protocol plan and will require passengers and staff who were on the ship between April 1 and May 10 — or who had close contact with a confirmed case — to quarantine at a Madrid military hospital under active monitoring. Gene Sloan, an editor with the travel website The Points Guy, had a similar experience when he was quarantined on the SeaDream, the first cruise ship to set sail in the Caribbean after the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. Tyler Torres said the only advice he could offer cruisers on the Hondius would be to "find something to make the most of the situation." Two passengers on the Hondius have used social media to keep the public and their families updated on the situation..

It sort of brought back terrible memories that we had because we had no idea the significance of what was happening to us," Smedley, 72, of Dillsburg, Pennsylvania, said in a phone interview on Wednesday. Smedley said his cruise on the Diamond Princess, where more than 700 people were infected and several others died, was "pretty devastating." He said he's sympathetic to the people on the Hondius because he knows exactly what they are going through. Unlike Covid-19, the strain doesn't spread easily through casual contact, an infectious disease specialist at the National Institute for Communicable Diseases in South Africa told NBC News. Pablo Vial, an infectious disease doctor who studies Hantavirus at the Institute of Sciences and Innovation in Medicine in Santiago, Chile, told NBC News that some patients.

But about two weeks into their vacation, someone tested positive for Covid. They didn't let us off the ship that Monday morning like we were supposed to depart," Bill Smedley recalled. Some cases may initially present with vague symptoms that progress to respiratory issues. Nobody would talk to each other; we were in gloves and masks and everything like that." Rachel and Tyler Torres, of Shreveport, Louisiana, were also on that cruise to celebrate their honeymoon. Like fellow passengers, including the Smedleys, they had to quarantine for two weeks at an Air Force base in Texas before they could make the final trek home.