Hantavirus live updates: CDC will bring Americans back to quarantine unit

The University of Nebraska, which hosts the quarantine facility the American cruise ship passengers are set to travel to, said Nebraska Medicine and the University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC) are coordinating with partners to receive the U.S. citizens.

The university said the National Quarantine Unit is the only federally funded quarantine unit in the U.S.

"We are prepared for situations exactly like this," Dr. Michael Ash, CEO of Nebraska Medicine, said in a statement. "Our teams have trained for decades alongside federal and state partners to make sure we can safely provide care while protecting our staff and the broader community. We are proud to support this national effort."

Nebraska Medical Center also houses the Nebraska Biocontainment Unit, a highly specialized facility meant to care for patients with "high-consequence infectious diseases," the university said.

Nebraska Medicine and UNMC treated patients during the 2014 Ebola outbreak and cared for some of the first Americans diagnosed with COVID-19 in 2020.

"We understand situations like this can raise questions," Ash said. "People should know these facilities were specifically designed to prevent exposure to the public. There is no risk to the community from people being cared for in these units."

In a statement released earlier on Thursday, the University of Nebraska said both units "are staffed and ready, if needed, to safely provide care while protecting our staff and the community."

-ABC News' Youri Benadjaoud

Anais Legand, the technical officer with the World Health Organization, briefed the press Friday about the organization's efforts to screen the M/V Hondius' crew and passengers after the ship arrives in the Canary Islands.

Health teams will work with national authorities and each boat member will be assessed by trained medical staff, he said.

Epidemiologists will review individual exposure histories and interactions, according to Legand.

"So this is a way for us to get all the pieces together and have the maximum information to be able to assess any risk for this person and give them the right recommendation," he said.

-ABC News' Othon Leyva

An official at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed to ABC News that the agency will be dispatching personnel to the Canary Islands, where the M/V Hondius -- the cruise ship at the center of a suspected hantavirus cluster -- is scheduled to arrive on Sunday.

Teams will then escort those Americans to the National Quarantine Unit in Nebraska.

-ABC News' Youri Benadjaoud

No U.S. residents have experienced any signs of illness as of Friday morning, according to health officials. However, six states are tracking nine residents for possible hantavirus infections.

Health officials in Texas, New Jersey and Georgia are monitoring two people while officials in California, Virginia and Arizona say they each are monitoring one person.