Overview
- The World Health Organization, which updated its figures Friday, reports eight cases tied to the cruise ship including three deaths, with six lab-confirmed as the Andes strain of hantavirus.
- The CDC says the risk to the U.S. public remains low and has activated a Level 3 response as it deploys teams to Spain’s Canary Islands and prepares a medical repatriation flight.
- Returning Americans are slated to land at Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska before transfer to the National Quarantine Unit at the University of Nebraska Medical Center for monitoring.
- Nebraska Medicine and UNMC leaders say the 17 U.S. passengers are currently asymptomatic and will be observed in negative-pressure rooms, with any ill person moved to the adjacent biocontainment unit.
- Health officials note the Andes virus can rarely spread between people and symptoms may appear one to eight weeks after exposure, while international teams continue tracing passengers who disembarked earlier, including at least one identified Utahn.