90-Second Read: Hantavirus outbreak: Hochul says 3 passengers on virus-infected ship are from New York

Kathy Hochul said Monday that three passengers on the Hantavirus-infected ship "call New York home." NEW YORK (WABC) -- New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said Monday that three passengers on the Hantavirus-infected ship "call New York home." One passenger is from New York City while the other two are residents of Orange County and Westchester County. 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. On Monday, 16 American cruise ship passengers arrived at the University of Nebraska Medical Center where 15 are in the quarantine unit and one person is in the biocontainment unit, officials said. Two other American cruise.

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. Those two people were not passengers on the cruise ship and officials say the potential exposure happened during air travel abroad. The Andes strain of the Hantavirus can spread human to human and there is no vaccine nor cure. This is New York, it's a large, densely populated state and city, and I just need to do the responsible thing and prepare. Officials say they traveled on the same plane with the person who was on the ship.

The governor said she doesn't know whether those individuals will return to New York to quarantine. 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. Three people have died from the outbreak tied to the ship. The CDC maintains that the risk to the general public is low.