U.S. health officials will hold a news conference Monday morning to provide an update after the 17 Americans aboard the hantavirus-stricken cruise ship Hondius arrived in Nebraska overnight, with passengers set to quarantine at a specialized facility at the University of Nebraska Medical Center campus in Omaha.
The passengers landed in Omaha about 1:30 a.m. CT via a State Department plane after the ship anchored in the Canary Islands Sunday. 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 Monday.
One of the 17 American passengers evacuated from the ship and flown to Nebraska tested “mildly” positive but was not showing any symptoms, and another had mild symptoms, U.S. health officials said late Sunday. The two traveled in the plane’s biocontainment units “out of an abundance of caution,” HHS said.
“One passenger will be transported to the Nebraska Biocontainment Unit upon arrival, while other passengers will go to the National Quarantine Unit for assessment and monitoring,” Kayla Thomas, a spokesperson for the Nebraska Medicine hospital that will help care for the passengers, said. “The passenger who is going to the Biocontainment Unit tested positive for the virus but does not have symptoms.”
Monday’s press conference is scheduled for 9 a.m., according to officials, with experts from Nebraska Medicine, UNMC and federal and state health officials expected to speak. As more details continue to unfold, here’s what we know right now.
Why are the Americans quarantining in Nebraska?
The 17 passengers will be received at the National Quarantine Unit, a secured facility on the University of Nebraska Medical Center campus in Omaha, said Dr. Michael Wadman, the unit’s medical director.
There, teams will assess them and determine any necessary quarantine measures, he told reporters Friday. They will also be monitored daily.
The Biocontainment Unit treats patients with hazardous communicable diseases in sterile environments that maximize safety and containment. It features an isolation unit, a HEPA filtration system and specialized sterilization “autoclaves” with double doors to decontaminate waste and linens.
According to Wadman, there are 20 available spaces in the quarantine unit and each individual will have their own room and get food delivered to them. The passengers will have their vital signs monitored daily and have access to a team of health care workers, including infectious disease specialists and critical care physicians.
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.
How many people have tested positive?
Early last month, a 70-year-old Dutch man developed a feverish illness on the cruise ship traveling from Argentina to Antarctica and some islands in the South Atlantic. He died less than a week later. More people became sick, including the man’s wife and a German woman, who both died.
Previously, a total of five people who left the ship tested positive, but that number has since grown.
Overnight, a French woman tested positive, with her health worsening in the hospital. The woman was among five French passengers repatriated Sunday to Paris from the MV Hondius, and developed symptoms on the flight, officials said.
One the 17 American passengers evacuated from the ship and flown to Nebraska also tested positive for the hantavirus but is not showing any symptoms,. Another did not test positive but had mild symptoms, U.S. health officials said late Sunday.
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