Overview
- Three former passengers departed the University of Nebraska Medical Center’s National Quarantine Unit after about four weeks and returned to their home states to finish two weeks of local monitoring.
- The Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response coordinated non-commercial, biocontainment transfers so the passengers would not travel on commercial flights.
- Ten exposed passengers remain under observation at the UNMC unit while eight others had already been released earlier from the facility.
- Health officials stress that Andes hantavirus is mainly spread by rodents and rarely passes between people, so the response focuses on targeted isolation, contact tracing and the full 42-day follow-up rather than broad community measures.
- Authorities continue genomic sequencing, rodent and environmental testing and ship disinfection to find the exposure source and watch for changes that could affect transmission or public-health guidance.