The U.S. government is sending a medical repatriation plane to remove and return Americans from the cruise ship at the center of a hantavirus outbreak, officials said.
The flight is being organized by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Department of Health and Human Services, in coordination with Spanish authorities, the State Department said. The plan is to transport roughly 17 Americans back to the United States for evaluation and care; university and CDC officials said the passengers will be taken to the University of Nebraska Medical Center’s specialized biocontainment unit after the plane lands at Offutt Air Force Base in Omaha.
Michael Wadman, medical director of the National Quarantine Unit at the Nebraska unit, said the facility is preparing to receive 17 to 19 Americans. “Each individual will have their own room,” he said, noting the rooms resemble hotel rooms but include Wi-Fi and exercise equipment to help keep people comfortable if isolation is prolonged. He added that a formal quarantine period has not been defined.
The vessel involved, the MV Hondius, is en route from Cape Verde to the Canary Islands and is expected to reach the coast of Tenerife early Sunday local time. Spanish officials said the ship will not dock; instead it will anchor offshore and passengers will disembark slowly, country by country, to reduce any risk of further spread.
Spanish authorities described the disembarkation process: once passengers are verified as asymptomatic, they will be transferred in groups of five into small boats to reach shore, then bused directly to the airport runway where repatriation planes for each nation will be waiting. Virginia Balcones, secretary general of civil protection in Spain, emphasized strict separation measures, saying all areas those passengers traverse will be isolated and there will be no contact with civilian personnel.
The CDC said it is sending a team of epidemiologists and medical staff to the Canary Islands to assess exposure risk for each American passenger and recommend appropriate monitoring. A second CDC team is being sent to Offutt Air Force Base to support incoming passengers.
The World Health Organization is conducting health checks for everyone aboard and assessing individuals’ exposure levels to confirmed hantavirus cases to advise on next steps. As of Friday, WHO and Spanish officials reported no one among the 147 people on board was showing symptoms. Medicalized aircraft will be on standby if anyone develops symptoms, though Spanish authorities said standard planes are expected to be used for transport in most cases.
Dutch officials reported nine confirmed or suspected hantavirus cases linked to the cruise, including three deaths: a Dutch couple and another woman who died aboard the ship. The Dutch couple had traveled for months in Argentina, Uruguay and Chile and had bird-watched in areas where the Andes strain — the only hantavirus strain known to transmit between humans — circulates.
Angela Hewlett, medical director of the Nebraska Biocontainment Unit, said the virus generally requires very close contact to spread. “I do not see this as progressing to a worldwide pandemic, although there’s still a lot of unknowns,” she said.
More than a dozen countries, including the U.S., are monitoring people who disembarked from the Hondius before hantavirus was confirmed among passengers. Spain’s Secretary of State for Health, Javier Padilla, reiterated that even the Andes strain does not spread easily like COVID-19 and that the overall risk to the general population is very low.
Spanish health officials said the Hondius, a Dutch-flagged ship, will eventually depart the Canary Islands and return to the Netherlands with a skeleton crew. Angel Canales contributed to this report.