June 2, 2026:
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Five of the 18 American cruise ship passengers who have been staying at a national quarantine facility in Nebraska after being exposed to hantavirus are going home, U.S. health officials said Monday (June 1, 2026).
The five people will complete their monitoring at home after remaining symptom-free and meeting criteria for monitoring outside the quarantine unit at the University of Nebraska Medical Center.
They are leaving Omaha about three weeks after they and the 13 other Americans arrived in Nebraska following a deadly outbreak of hantavirus on a cruise ship traveling in the South Atlantic Ocean.
Hantaviruses usually spread when people inhale contaminated residue of rodent droppings, but the hantavirus that has caused the current outbreak, called the Andes virus, may be able to spread between people in rare cases.
A total of 13 confirmed or probable hantavirus cases, including three deaths, have been linked to the ship, according to the World Health Organization.
No Andes virus cases have been confirmed in the U.S., and the risk to the public remains low, health officials said.
None of the U.S. passengers has shown any symptoms, a spokesperson for Nebraska Medicine said Monday.
Symptoms of hantavirus have taken as long as 42 days to appear in previous outbreaks, but some medical experts say most people who develop symptoms do so within 21 days.
The doctors in Omaha monitoring the passengers had said previously that they would work with each person individually to determine if it was appropriate for them to go home to finish their recommended 42-day quarantine period.
Federal officials arranged travel for the five people going home, in coordination with state and local authorities. Officials said the travel was not to be on commercial flights, with appropriate biocontainment measures in place. State health departments will continue daily symptom monitoring, maintain 24/7 oversight and provide guidance.
Two of the people returning to their homes live outside New York City, said city Health Commissioner Dr. Alister Martin.
One of the remaining passengers, Jake Rosmarin, posted on his blog Sunday that he plans to stay at the Omaha unit for his final three weeks of quarantine because he would have immediate access to care if he gets sick and he doesn’t want to risk unnecessarily exposing anyone else.
Rosmarin, who posts daily updates about his experience, said he’s not judging anyone who decided to go home.
“For me personally, this experience has been incredibly traumatic,” Rosmarin said. “I don’t think I’ve fully processed everything yet, and right now I don’t want to leave until I know there is no risk of me getting sick or putting my family, friends, or the general public at risk.”
Not everyone quarantined in Nebraska has been happy about it. About a week after the 18 arrived, U.S. health officials issued quarantine orders forcing two passengers who wanted to leave to stay there.
May 11, 2026, update:
OMAHA, Nebraska (AP) — Passengers from a cruise ship hit by a deadly hantavirus outbreak were being flown home Monday (May 11, 2026) to more than 20 countries and quarantined, including a French woman and an American who tested positive.
Passengers from the ship began flying home aboard military and government planes Sunday after the MV Hondius anchored in the Canary Islands. Personnel in full-body protective gear and breathing masks escorted the travelers from ship to shore in Tenerife, an effort that continued Monday.
Three cruise ship passengers have died, and six people with confirmed or suspected cases of hantavirus are being quarantined, according to the World Health Organization. The lab results of the American who tested positive were inconclusive, WHO spokesperson Sarah Tyler said Monday.
Health authorities say the risk to the broader public is low from the first-ever hantavirus outbreak on a cruise ship. While there is no cure or vaccine for hantavirus, the WHO says early detection and treatment improves survival rates.
The ship’s captain, Jan Dobrogowski, issued a video message Monday praising passengers and crew for their courage and perseverance, and he called for respect for their privacy.
“I could not imagine sailing through these circumstances with a better group of people, guests and crew alike,” he said.
New cases in France, United States
The French woman tested positive for hantavirus and her health worsened in the hospital overnight, French Health Minister Stephanie Rist said Monday. The woman was among five passengers who returned to France Sunday. She developed symptoms on the flight to Paris, Rist told public broadcaster France-Inter.
One of 18 passengers evacuated from the ship and flown to the U.S. also tested positive for the hantavirus but is not showing any symptoms, and another had mild symptoms, U.S. health officials said late Sunday.
After landing early Monday, 16 American passengers — one of them a British-U.S. dual citizen — were taken to the University of Nebraska Medical Center, which has a federally funded quarantine facility and a biocontainment unit for treating people with infectious diseases. They were being assessed to determine if they had close contact with any symptomatic people and their risk levels for spreading the virus.
An American who tested positive for hantavirus on the cruise chip was taken to the Omaha campus’ biocontainment unit and will be tested again. The passenger “is doing well and not having symptoms at this time,” said Dr. Angela Hewlett, the unit’s medical director.
The others taken to Nebraska will be monitored in quarantine for several days. They arrived “in good shape, good spirits,” said Dr. Michael Wadman, the quarantine unit’s medical director.
Two additional American passengers, a couple, arrived Monday at a medical facility at Emory University in Atlanta. One of them has mild symptoms and will be tested for hantavirus.
“It doesn’t necessarily mean, just because someone has symptoms, that they’re going to end up having this illness,” said Dr. Brendan Jackson of the U.S. Centers of Disease Control and Prevention.
WHO recommends close monitoring of former passengers
The evacuation of passengers from Tenerife was due to wrap up on Monday.
A Dutch plane expected to reach Tenerife Monday afternoon will carry passengers that were previously going to be evacuated on a plane sent by Australia, Spain’s Health Minister Mónica García said. On Monday, 54 passengers and crew remained on the ship, of which 22 were expected to disembark, while the remaining 32 will remain on the ship as it returns to the Netherlands.
South African health authorities said on Monday that the condition of a British man admitted to a hospital in Johannesburg and being treated for hantavirus was gradually improving. He was evacuated from the ship on April 27 after becoming ill.
The Hondius left the southern Argentine port of Ushuaia on April 1 and a Dutch passenger died on board April 11. It wasn’t until early May that the World Health Organization said it was reacting to a suspected hantavirus outbreak on the ship, which by that time was off the West African island nation of Cape Verde.
Health officials say risk to public is low
Hantavirus usually spreads from rodent droppings and is not easily transmitted between people. But the Andes virus detected in the cruise ship outbreak may be able to spread between people in rare cases. Symptoms — which can include fever, chills and muscle aches — usually show between one and eight weeks after exposure.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Sunday that the general public should not be worried about the outbreak. “This is not another COVID. And the risk to the public is low. So they shouldn’t be scared, and they shouldn’t panic.”
WHO is recommending that passengers’ home countries “have active monitoring and follow-up, which means daily health checks, either at home or in a specialized facility,” said Maria Van Kerkhove, the WHO’s director of epidemic and pandemic preparedness.
Numerous countries have said their people will be quarantined or hospitalized for observation.
The ship’s captain, Dobrogowski, said his thoughts “are with the ones that are no longer with us, and whatever I say will not ease this loss, but I’d like you to know that they are with us every day in our hearts and our thoughts.”
May 11, 2026:
THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — A French woman and an American have tested positive for the hantavirus as nations around the world repatriated passengers from a cruise ship hit by an outbreak and quarantine or isolate them. French Health Minister Stephanie Rist said Monday (May 11, 2026) that the woman was among five French passengers repatriated Sunday to Paris from the MV Hondius. U.S. health officials said Sunday that one of the 17 American passengers evacuated from the ship and flown to Nebraska also tested positive for the hantavirus but is not showing any symptoms, while another had mild symptoms. The World Health Organization recommended close monitoring of the former passengers, and many countries quarantined them.
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