The U.S. has entered emergency response mode as a cruise ship hit by a deadly hantavirus outbreak sails toward Tenerife, one of Spain’s Canary Islands, where it will evacuate nearly 150 passengers on board, including at least 17 Americans.

State and local health officials in the U.S. are monitoring at least eight passengers who disembarked on April 24 and returned home. For the time being, those individuals are not being told to isolate, since they have not developed symptoms.

As early as Sunday, global health authorities will help transport passengers still on board the ship — all of whom are currently asymptomatic — to their respective home countries. Passengers will be taken to a “completely isolated, cordoned-off” area in Tenerife, then board guarded vehicles to transport them to a section of the local airport that will also be cordoned off, Virginia Barcones, Spain’s head of emergency services, said Thursday at a press conference.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday in a statement that it is sending a team of epidemiologists and medical professionals to the Canary Islands to meet the Americans on board, who will fly to Nebraska upon arrival.

The flight will land at Offutt Air Force Base in Omaha, Nebraska. The repatriated passengers will then be transported to the National Quarantine Unit at the Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha. It’s unknown how long the quarantine will last.

Dr. Michael Wadman, the medical director for the National Quarantine Unit, said 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.

Nebraska Medical Center also has a biocontainment unit that housed some of the first Covid patients who’d been aboard the Diamond Princess cruise ship in early 2020, as well as several Ebola patients in 2014. If passengers become ill, they will move from quarantine into the biocontainment unit.

A U.S. State Department spokesperson said the repatriation flight is part of a coordinated effort between the CDC, the U.S. Health and Human Services Department and the government of Spain.

While many of these efforts are standard responses to an international health threat, some public health experts said it’s unusual that the CDC has not held a public briefing on the outbreak yet. Many experts also worry that the U.S. departure from the World Health Organization in January means the country won’t be first to receive hantavirus updates. When asked about these concerns, HHS pointed to a statement on the CDC website that said the government is “working closely with our international partners” and the White House said the administration “remains vigilant.”

Hantavirus causes fever, fatigue, nausea and trouble breathing. Infections are rare, but often deadly: The fatality rate in the Americas is up to 50%, according to the World Health Organization.

Because the virus’ incubation period can last up to six weeks, state and local health departments are watching for symptoms among the American passengers who disembarked on April 24.

Georgia and Texas have each said they are monitoring two residents who were on the cruise ship. Arizona and Virginia are monitoring one each. Virginia’s health department said in a statement that “a small number (<5) of other potentially exposed Virginians might be identified in the days ahead.”

California’s health department said Friday in a statement that at least one California resident remains on board the ship and one other returned to the state after disembarking.

New Jersey’s health department also said that two New Jersey residents who were not passengers on the ship were potentially exposed to an infected person “during air travel abroad.”

State health departments have not announced plans to isolate or test the returned passengers, citing the fact that none of them is showing signs of infection. (Source: NBC News)

Story Date: May 10, 2026