US passengers from the Dutch flagged hantavirus-stricken cruise ship MV Hondius disembark at the industrial port of Granadilla de Abona on the island of Tenerife in Spain’s Canary Islands on May 10, 2026.
Health officials have called for calm following a widespread scare, saying the Hantavirus disease is nowhere near as serious as COVID-19.
One of 17 American citizens being repatriated from a hantavirus-hit cruise ship has tested mildly positive for the virus, the US health department said on Sunday.
“One passenger currently has mild symptoms and another passenger tested mildly PCR positive for the Andes virus,” the Department of Health and Human Services said.
Both passengers are currently travelling in the plane’s biocontainment units “out of an abundance of caution,” it said.
Spanish civil guard members wear protective suits as the Dutch-flagged hantavirus-stricken cruise ship MV Hondius arrived at the industrial port of Granadilla de Abona on the island of Tenerife in Spain’s Canary Islands on May 10, 2026
The development has sent panic waves across the United States, with Jay Bhattacharya, acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), urging the US public to remain calm about the hantavirus, saying: “This is not Covid.”
AFP quoted a top US health official on Sunday that American passengers evacuated from a cruise ship struck by a deadly hantavirus outbreak will not necessarily be quarantined.
People wearing blue protective suits are evacuated on a boat from the Dutch-flagged hantavirus-stricken cruise ship MV Hondius at the industrial port of Granadilla de Abona on the island of Tenerife in Spain’s Canary Islands on May 10, 2026
The United States announced Friday that it would organise a repatriation flight for the 17 Americans aboard the MV Hondius, where three passengers have died, and others have fallen sick. The ship has arrived in Spain’s Canary Islands.
The US passengers, all of whom are asymptomatic, will be taken to a specialised center in the rural state of Nebraska, but will not necessarily be quarantined there, Bhattacharya told CNN’s “State of the Union” news program on Sunday.
“We’re going to interview them and assess them for risk… if they have been in close contact with somebody who was symptomatic,” he said.