WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has announced that an American passenger who was evacuated from the the hantavirus-stricken cruise ship has been tested positive for the virus, and another has been diagnoed with mild symptoms.
They are among 17 American passengers who were airlifted to the United States after being evacuated from MV Hondius off Canary Islands on Sunday.
Two of the passengers were travelling in the plane's biocontainment units 'out of an abundance of caution', HHS said in a statement posted on X Sunday night. 'One passenger currently has mild symptoms and another passenger tested mildly PCR positive for the Andes virus'.
'As of now, the airlift will transport passengers to the ASPR Regional Emerging Special Pathogen Treatment Center (RESPTC) at the University of Nebraska Medical Center/Nebraska Medicine in Omaha, Nebraska before taking the passenger with mild symptoms to a second RESPTC at its final destination,' HHS added.
'Upon arrival at each facility, each individual will undergo clinical assessment and receive appropriate care and support based on their condition', the statement says.
Later, CNN reported that an aircraft with the passengers on board landed at Eppley Airfield in Omaha by around 2:30 AM ET.
A U.S.-based British national also was in the chartered flight, reports quoting Spanish Health Minister Mónica García said.
Earlier, passengers and crew from the cruise ship disembarked in Tenerife on Sunday under a tightly coordinated international health operation led by Spanish authorities and the World Health Organization.
The vessel arrived off the Canary Islands after weeks at sea at the centre of an international public health response triggered by a hantavirus outbreak that has claimed three lives.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who is leading a team in Tenerife, stressed that the risk to the wider public remains low.
There have been eight cases linked to the ship of which six cases have been laboratory-confirmed as hantavirus infections as of Friday.
The disembarkation operation began early in the morning, with Spanish health authorities boarding the ship to assess passengers and crew before transferring them ashore in stages based on nationality and flight availability.
According to WHO's health operations lead in Tenerife, Diana Rojas Alvarez, passengers and crew from Spain, France, Canada and the Netherlands were among the first groups to leave the vessel.
Around 46 passengers and crew disembarkED on Sunday, with operations due to continue into Monday, Alvarez told reporters. About 30 crew members are expected to remain on board as the vessel returns to the Netherlands accompanied by a medical team.
WHO officials said none of the passengers would travel on commercial flights. Instead, chartered repatriation flights are being coordinated with national authorities under strict health protocols.
Maria van Kerkhove, WHO Director for Epidemic and Pandemic Management, said passengers and crew would undergo active health monitoring for up to six weeks because of the virus's incubation period.
'Our recommendation is for active follow-up, which means daily monitoring, checking for fever or other symptoms,' she said, adding that WHO recommends either home or facility-based quarantine and monitoring for 42 days.
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