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Hantavirus live updates: 15 in quarantine in Nebraska, 1 in biocontainment unit

A flight carrying U.S. citizens who were on the ship arrived Monday in Nebraska.

ByChristopher Watson, Ivan Pereira, Jon Haworth, Mary Kekatos, Nadine El-Bawab, Leah Sarnoff, and Kevin Shalvey
Last Updated: May 11, 2026, 11:17 AM EDT

Passengers onboard the MV Hondius cruise ship started disembarking Sunday in Tenerife, in the Canary Islands, to be transferred to charter flights back to their home countries.

The total number of confirmed and probable cases of hantavirus onboard the ship has risen to 10, including two people confirmed to have died from the virus and one person who remains suspected to have died from the virus.

On Monday, 16 American cruise ship passengers arrived at the University of Nebraska Medical Center; 15 are in the quarantine unit and one person is in the biocontainment unit, officials said. Two other American cruise ship passengers were flown to Atlanta “for further assessment and care," officials said.

Key Headlines

Here's how the news is developing.
May 8, 10:44 am

What is hantavirus and how does it spread?

Here's what you need to know about hantavirus including what it is, how it spreads, how it's treated and if there are any prevention methods:

What is hantavirus?

Hantaviruses are a family of viruses that can cause serious illnesses and death, according to the CDC.

Stock photo of a colorized electron micrograph of the Hantavirus.
Alfred Pasieka/Science Photo Lib/STOCK PHOTO/Getty Images

How does hantavirus spread?

Hantaviruses may also spread from person to person, but that also is rare and only suspected for one subtype from South America, according to the WHO.

Read more about hantavirus here.

4:09 AM EDT

French passenger tests positive, minister says

One of the five French passengers evacuated from the MV Hondius has tested positive for hantavirus, according to French Health Minister Stephanie Rist, who spoke to French public radio on Monday morning.

PHOTO: Ambulances transporting French national passengers of the MV Hondius, where an outbreak of hantavirus has been detected, drive in a tunnel enter Paris on May 10, 2026.
Ambulances transporting French national passengers of the MV Hondius, where an outbreak of hantavirus has been detected, drive in a tunnel enter Paris on May 10, 2026, after a plane repatriating them landed Le Bourget airport, in the outskirts of Paris.
Xavier Galiana/AFP via Getty Images

The passenger showed symptoms on the plane to France, and their condition worsened overnight, Rist said. They are in a specialist infectious diseases hospital, she said.

Additionally, France has identified 22 "contact cases" -- people who may have come into contact with those infected with hantavirus, she said. These people were on two flights where someone with hantavirus was also on board and have been isolating, according to Rist.

-ABC News' Victoria Beaule

3:48 AM EDT

Plane lands in Nebraska carrying Americans evacuated from cruise ship

A plane carrying American passengers who were evacuated on Sunday from a hantavirus-hit cruise ship arrived early on Monday in Nebraska.

A chartered aircraft carrying passengers evacuated from the cruise ship MV Hondius, which was affected by a hantavirus outbreak, arriving at Eppley Airfield in Omaha, Nebraska, U.S. May 11, 2026.
Hayden Smith/Reuters

Officials on Sunday said one of the passengers arriving at Omaha's Eppley Airfield via a Department of State airlift tested positive for the virus.

That passenger and another were on the plane were traveling in the aircraft's biocontainment units "out of an abundance of caution," the Department of Health and Human Services said in a statement.

May 10, 2026, 10:54 PM EDT

American who tested positive will be transported to biocontainment unit

The American passenger who tested positive for hantavirus will be transported to the Nebraska Biocontainment Unit, according to Nebraska Medicine, which hosts the facility.

The individual does not have any symptoms and was separated from other passengers during the flight through biocontainment measures. They will be receiving a follow-up test, Nebraska Medicine said.

The remaining passengers will go to the National Quarantine Unit for assessment and monitoring.

May 10, 2026, 10:43 PM EDT

1 American positive for hantavirus, another symptomatic, HHS says

The Department of Health and Human Services released a statement on Sunday saying one American has tested positive for hantavirus as the plane with 18 MV Hondius passengers is headed to the U.S.

Two of the passengers on the plane are traveling in the aircraft's biocontainment units "out of an abundance of caution," according to HHS.

The agency said that of the two, one passenger currently has mild symptoms and the other has tested PCR positive for the virus.

The plane is first going to the ASPR Regional Emerging Special Pathogen Treatment Center (RESPTC) at the University of Nebraska Medical Center before taking the passenger with mild symptoms to a second RESPTC, according to HHS.

"Upon arrival at each facility, each individual will undergo clinical assessment and receive appropriate care and support based on their condition," HHS said.

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