90-Second Read: Hantavirus outbreak: Cruise ship passengers from New York State speak out from quarantine

NEW YORK (WABC) -- Three of the 18 American passengers who were evacuated from a cruise ship amid a Hantavirus outbreak are connected to New York State, according to New York Gov. One of the patients died and the other two, the physician and one of the other staff members, were getting progressively sicker, and then the first news of Hantavirus came out." The third passenger with a connection to New York State is 76-year-old Mary Roefs. The news comes days after officials in New Jersey announced that they are monitoring two Garden State residents after they were potentially exposed to a person infected with Hantavirus after the person departed the MV Hondius cruise ship. One passenger, a doctor, lives in New York City while the other two connected to.

On Monday, 16 of the American cruise ship passengers arrived at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. Two other American cruise ship passengers were flown to Atlanta "for further assessment and care. Those two people were not passengers on the cruise ship and officials say the potential exposure happened during air travel abroad. Stephen Kornfeld, who resides in New York City, is an oncologist from Bend, Oregon. I believe that there's a 42-day monitoring period, and they can decide whether they want to do that in Nebraska or come back and make other accommodations.

The repatriation flight was smooth, and I safely made it to the National Quarantine Unit in Omaha. 15 are in the quarantine unit and one person is in the biocontainment unit, officials said. The Andes strain of the Hantavirus can spread human to human and there is no vaccine nor a cure. Three people have died from the outbreak tied to the ship. Among them is Jake Rosmarin, 29, who is from Orange County and resides in Boston.

Hochul said the state is monitoring the situation, but "it's transmitted very differently than the coronavirus, there's no panic, no concern." The governor said she is still putting together a plan to be proactive. This is New York, it's a large, densely populated state and city, and I just need to do the responsible thing and prepare. Rosmarin has been quarantining at the University of Nebraska and posted to social media about his journey. It just kind of escalated to within 24 hours after I stepped in," Dr. Officials say they traveled on the same plane with the person who was on the ship.