Americans land in Nebraska after evacuating ship due to hantavirus

Added: 2026-05-11

[00:00:02][music] >> A plane carrying American passengers who were evacuated from a hantavirus-hit cruise ship landed in Omaha, Nebraska early Monday.

[00:00:13]According to Associated Press, one of the 17 American passengers traveling on the flight tested positive for the hantavirus but had not been showing any symptoms, and another had mild symptoms, US health officials said late on Sunday.

[00:00:26]The infected passenger was set to be taken to the Nebraska biocontainment unit.

[00:00:31]The others were going to be taken to the national quarantine unit at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, which has a federally funded quarantine facility to assess whether they have been in close contact with any symptomatic people and their risk levels for spreading the virus.

[00:00:47]The medical school also has a special unit for treating people with highly infectious diseases that was used early in the pandemic for COVID-19 patients and previously for Ebola patients.

[00:00:58]Passengers from the MV Handia ship began flying home aboard military and government planes on Sunday after the vessel anchored in Spain's Canary Islands.

[00:01:07]Personnel in full-body protective gear and breathing masks had escorted the travelers from ship to shore in Tenerife in an effort that was continuing on Monday.

[00:01:16]The World Health Organization recommended close monitoring of the former passengers, and many countries quarantined them.

[00:01:23]Three people have died since the outbreak began, and five people who left the ship earlier were infected.

[00:03:54]>> Mhm.

[00:05:25]>> Mhm.