US passengers headed home after cruise ship hit by hantavirus. Updates
Groups of passengers and crew disembarked from the cruise ship at the center of a hantavirus outbreak on Sunday in Spain, where they were expected to be evacuated to their home countries and begin quarantining to prevent further spread of the disease.
Once the MV Hondius anchored near Tenerife, in the Canary Islands, Spanish nationals disembarked first before passengers from France, Canada, and the Netherlands. By Sunday evening, at least 94 passengers had been evacuated, according to Spanish Health Minister Mónica García.
Seventeen Americans and one British national were evacuated from the cruise ship and are bound for the United States, García said in a Sunday news conference. The passengers will be taken to Offutt Air Force Base in Omaha, Nebraska, where some are expected to be transported to the National Quarantine Center at the University of Nebraska.
Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, director of the National Institutes of Health, said some Americans may quarantine at home with support from local health officials.
Planes to Canada, the Netherlands, Turkey, the United Kingdom, Ireland, and the United States were due to depart by Sunday evening, with the final flights departing on Monday.
Government planes carrying Spanish and French nationals landed in Madrid and Paris on Sunday afternoon, where the passengers were transported to a hospital, according to the two countries' governments. One of five French passengers showed some symptoms on a repatriation flight, officials confirmed, which could increase the global tally of cases.
The World Health Organization said Friday that eight people had fallen ill in cases linked to the ship, including three who died − a Dutch couple and a German national. Six of these people were confirmed to have contracted the virus, with another two suspected cases.
The WHO recommended a 42-day isolation period for passengers aboard the ship starting from Sunday and assessed that the virus' risk to the public is low.
Contributing: Reuters
Where will US cruise ship passengers go?
Daniel de Visé
Seventeen Americans who cruised on the MV Hondius are now on an airplane bound not for their homes, but for the National Quarantine Unit in Nebraska.
Their stay may not be long.
Upon arrival at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, U.S. officials said, the passengers will be checked for symptoms and interviewed by personnel from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to determine the risk that they were exposed to hantavirus, said Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, director of the National Institutes of Health, speaking on CNN's "State of the Union" on Sunday.
If the passengers have no symptoms and no contact with anyone symptomatic, they will be deemed low risk. In that case, he said, they will have the option to return home, rather than stay at the national quarantine center.
CDC officials will extend "an offer to stay in Nebraska if they’d like," Bhattacharya said. But they will be allowed to return home, he added, if they can get there "without exposing other people on the way."
Once home, Bhattacharya said, the passengers can report to state and local public health agencies.
Any Americans who develop symptoms or choose to be quarantined will stay at the Training, Simulation and Quarantine Center, the only federally funded National Quarantine Unit in the United States, according to its website.
The 20-bed unit "provides unmatched quarantine monitoring and care for those exposed to high-consequence pathogens," its website added.
17 US passengers heading home
Daniel de Visé
Seventeen American passengers on MV Hondius, the cruise ship stricken with the hantavirus outbreak, have disembarked and boarded a flight home, Spanish Health Minister Monica Garcia said in a news conference on Sunday.
Eighteen passengers on that flight, including one British national, are bound for the United States, Garcia said.
According to CNN, the passengers "could be seen wearing blue protective clothing and masks aboard smaller boats transporting them from the cruise ship to shore." On Monday, the last flights out will take cruise passengers to Australia and the Netherlands, Reuters reported.
The flight to Australia will carry six passengers, and another to the Netherlands will take 18, with both flights also taking passengers from other countries that did not send their own repatriation flights, according to Reuters.
On Sunday, 94 cruise passengers boarded repatriation flights from the Canary Islands to eight or more home countries, according to the evening briefing and an earlier report from the Spanish Health Ministry.
About 150 passengers and crew members were screened earlier and found to be asymptomatic, but one French passenger showed symptoms on Sunday on the flight home.
Eight others have fallen ill in cases linked to the cruise, with six confirmed hantavirus cases and three deaths.
At least 76 cruise ship passengers travel home
Daniel de Visé
At least 76 passengers from the cruise ship MV Hondius have left the ship and boarded flights to seven countries, according to the Spanish Health Ministry. None of the flights have gone to the United States.
Here is a full list of the passengers sent home, according to a post from officials on X:
- 14 to Madrid
- 5 to France
- 4 to Canada
- 26 to the Netherlands
- 22 to the United Kingdom
- 2 to Ireland
- 3 to Turkey
Upcoming flights are bound for the United States and Australia, the ministry said. Earlier in the day, global health officials said 17 American passengers were set to leave the ship by day’s end.
All of the approximately 150 passengers were screened earlier on the cruise ship and found to be asymptomatic, but one French passenger showed symptoms Sunday on the flight home.
Hantavirus 'is on the end of its run,' expert says
Daniel de Visé
The hantavirus outbreak “is on the end of its run,” an infectious disease expert said Sunday.
“The good news is that, in a sense, it is hantavirus and not another coronavirus or influenza virus. This is one that has very limited ability to be transmitted person to person,” said Dr. Michael Osterholm, director of the University of Minnesota's Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy, speaking on ABC's “This Week.”
“And so, we have no question about the fact that this really is on the end of its run right now,” he said. “And there very possibly may be no additional cases from here on out.”
Osterholm said the United States sees about 30 hantavirus cases a year, mostly west of the Mississippi and traceable to a type of deer mouse that lives in the region. Stopping the disease from spreading, he said, is relatively simple.
“Right now, you can manage the individuals who have been exposed very simply by asking them twice a day, ‘Are you experiencing any kind of a fever?’” he said. “And then take the temperature. ‘Do you have any symptoms?’ If somebody is identified right at that point, you can put basically an N-95 mask on and stop all transmission.”
Officials: French passenger showed symptoms
Daniel de Visé
One of five French passengers on the MV Hondius cruise ship showed symptoms on a flight home, French authorities said.
The potential case comes after officials said they saw no signs of new hantavirus infections among the roughly 150 passengers and crew on the cruise ship, which is docked off the Canary Islands.
To date, eight people have fallen ill in cases linked to the ship, and three have died. Six of those people were confirmed to have contracted the virus, with another two suspected cases, the WHO said. The French individual could be confirmed as the ninth, though French officials did not immediately provide additional details on the person's symptoms.
Following the discovery of a symptomatic passenger, the five French citizens "were immediately placed in strict isolation until further notice," Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu said on X. "They are receiving medical care and will undergo testing and a full health assessment."
'This is not COVID': CDC official pushes back
Daniel de Visé
A senior U.S. health official pushed back against criticism that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been slow to respond to the hantavirus threat, stressing that the public health risk is low.
“This is not COVID, Jake,” Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, acting CDC director, told CNN's Jake Tapper on "State of the Union." “And we don’t want to treat it like COVID. We don’t want to cause a public panic over this.”
Some critics have accused the Trump administration of being ill-prepared to handle another pandemic, saying the CDC’s response to the hantavirus outbreak has been muted. Bhattacharya disagreed, saying his agency is in touch with the World Health Organization and other international health groups.
“The CDC has been working night and day to stay on top of this,” he said. “If the threat level were higher, then we would have obviously reacted differently.”
How will cruise ship passengers travel home?
Daniel de Visé
While dozens of passengers from the MV Hondius cruise ship have started their journeys home, the disembarkation process is expected to continue into tomorrow.
“There are a number of other flights that are planned today,” bound for Turkey, the United Kingdom, Ireland and the United States, Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove of the World Health Organization said during an afternoon briefing. “All of that may change,” and plans are being coordinated “on the ground in real time.”
Passengers will continue to disembark until 7 or 8 p.m. local time, Van Kerkhove said, with operations resuming in the morning. The goal is to “finish the repatriation tomorrow by 7 p.m.,” she said.
Once they have returned, passengers will be monitored daily for six weeks, Van Kerkhove said, either at home or in specialized facilities. They will be instructed to wear respirators if they interact with other people.
“They’re very anxious to get home, we understand that completely,” Van Kerkhove noted.
At least 40 cruise passengers have left the ship
Daniel de Visé
At least 40 passengers have disembarked the MV Hondius cruise ship and are returning to four home countries to be monitored for symptoms, World Health Organization officials said in an afternoon briefing.
“About 40, 46 people” had disembarked from the ship by the afternoon of May 10, said Dr. Diana Rojas Alvarez, health operations lead at the WHO, in a news conference. “So, it’s not everybody yet.”
Those passengers are returning to Canada, France, Spain and the Netherlands. Nearly 150 passengers and crew were on the ship when it arrived in Tenerife in the Canary Islands, where it is docked.
Small boats are carrying passengers to shore, where they head directly to specialized flights, WHO officials said.
US cruise passengers may get to go home
Daniel de Visé
Americans who traveled on the MV Hondius cruise ship will have the option to return home, rather than to a national quarantine center, if safety protocols permit, a top health official told CNN on Sunday.
Seven Americans have already returned home to California, Texas, Virginia and Georgia, said Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, director of the National Institutes of Health, speaking on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will interview remaining passengers to determine the risk that they were exposed to hantavirus, Bhattacharya said. If they had no contact to anyone symptomatic, he said, they will be deemed low risk.
CDC officials will extend to all the U.S. travelers “an offer to stay in Nebraska if they’d like,” to quarantine in a facility on the University of Nebraska campus. But they will be allowed to return home, he said, if they can get there “without exposing other people on the way.”
Then, he said, the passengers can report to state and local public health agencies.
Spanish, French cruise ship passengers arrive in home countries
Daniel de Visé
Fourteen Spanish citizens who were on the cruise ship afflicted with a hantavirus outbreak have arrived home in Spain.
The passengers left on a chartered flight from Tenerife, in the Canary Islands, on Sunday and landed at Torrejón de Ardoz military airport, east of Madrid, according to Spain’s Defense Ministry.
They were subsequently taken to Gomez Ulla military hospital in Madrid, where they will be quarantined, Reuters reported. Meanwhile, five French passengers from the MV Hondius cruise ship have arrived at an airport near Paris, according to the outlet.
Paratroopers deliver aid to remote island patient
British paratroopers reached a remote volcanic island with medics and supplies to aid a former cruise ship passenger who may have contracted hantavirus.
A team of six paratroopers and two military clinicians parachuted in from a Royal Air Force aircraft to Tristan da Cunha, a remote group of islands in the South Atlantic, the British government said Sunday. The operation marks the first time the United Kingdom's military has sent medical personnel by parachute to provide humanitarian support, according to the British Ministry of Defense.
“With oxygen supplies on the island at a critical level, an airdrop with medical personnel was the only method of getting vital care to the patient in time,” the ministry said in a statement.
Tristan da Cunha has 221 inhabitants and no airstrip. It's normally accessible only by ship. It is Britain’s most remote oversea territory.
Contributing: Reuters
Is there a vaccine for hantavirus?
Sara M Moniuszko
There is no specific treatment that cures hantavirus diseases, according to the World Health Organization, but early supportive medical care is "key to improve survival."
This care includes clinical monitoring and managing any respiratory, cardiac or other complications, the organization says.
Gene Hackman's wife died from hantavirus
Melina Khan
Hantavirus is the same infection that killed Betsy Arakawa, the wife of late actor Gene Hackman.
Hackman and Arakawa were both found dead in their Santa Fe, New Mexico, home in February 2025. Hackman, 95, died from natural causes. Arakawa, 65, died from hantavirus pulmonary syndrome. That's a severe, potentially deadly disease caused by hantavirus, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
After Arakawa and Hackman were found dead, officials conducted an environmental assessment of their home that found evidence of rodents and rodent feces around their property, according to a copy of the report obtained by USA TODAY in April 2025.
While Arakawa's death and the infections among those on board the MV Hondius both center on hantavirus, the cases are different because of the suspected transmission.
Arakawa is believed to have contracted the virus from the rodent droppings found around her and Hackman's home, while some of the infected cruise ship passengers are suspected to have gotten sick from each other.
Cruise ship passengers headed to one-of-a-kind quarantine center
Daniel de Visé
American cruise ship passengers headed into quarantine for possible hantavirus exposure are traveling to a center in Nebraska that is the only facility of its kind.
Housed at the University of Nebraska in Omaha, the Training, Simulation and Quarantine Center is the only federally funded National Quarantine Unit in the United States, according to its website.
The 20-bed unit “provides unmatched quarantine monitoring and care for those exposed to high-consequence pathogens,” the website says. The facility opened in 2019, just before the outbreak of COVID-19. The rooms are single-occupancy, with at least 300 square feet of living space, bathroom facilities, exercise equipment and internet access “for patients requiring longer stays.”
Hantavirus quarantine is recommended for 42 days. The rooms employ a technology called “negative pressure,” which ensures potential pathogens remain inside.
'Not the same situation' as COVID, experts say
Sara M Moniuszko
Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, director of the WHO’s Department of Epidemic and Pandemic Management, said last week that hantavirus is very different from coronavirus and does not spread the same way.
"I want to be unequivocal here: this is not SARS-CoV-2. This is not the start of a COVID pandemic," she said. "This is an outbreak that we see on a ship (and) there's a confined area... But this is not the same situation we were in six years ago."
In a contained setting like a cruise ship, close quarters can amplify risk, infectious disease expert Dr. Sukrut Dwivedi of Hackensack Meridian Ocean University Medical Center told USA TODAY.
"Health authorities are appropriately emphasizing contact tracing, isolation and monitoring of close contacts," he said. "The overall risk to the general public remains low, as hantaviruses do not spread easily like respiratory viruses such as flu or COVID-19."
Trump describes situation as 'under control'
Kathryn Palmer
Speaking to reporters at the White House on Friday, President Donald Trump said he has been briefed about the evolving hantavirus situation linked to the cruise ship.
"It's very much, we hope, under control," he said, adding that "we have a lot of great people studying it."
"It should be fine − we hope," he said.
Top American health officials, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, have said they're "actively monitoring and responding" to the outbreak, though the risk to the United States remains "extremely low."
What to know about hantavirus
Kathryn Palmer
Hantaviruses are a group of viruses that naturally infect rodents and are occasionally transmitted to humans through contact with rodent urine, feces or saliva.
The WHO has said the hantavirus involved in the cruise ship outbreak is the Andes virus, the only strain known to be capable of limited transmission between humans, linked to close and prolonged contact.
In humans, hantavirus infections can cause two serious syndromes: Hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS), which affects the lungs, and hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS), which affects the kidneys.
The WHO has assessed the risk to the global population as low, according to a news release published on its website.