The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on May 19 confirmed it has ordered the quarantine of two people who were on a cruise ship where a hantavirus outbreak took place.
Acting CDC Director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya issued orders mandating the quarantine of two of the 18 passengers at a facility located at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, the CDC said in a statement.
The public health agency also said it had asked the 16 other people who were recently flown from the MV Hondius cruise ship to the United States to remain in Nebraska through May 31, or 21 days after the people were exposed to hantavirus. That includes two people who had been at a facility in Georgia, but were moved to the Nebraska facility, a CDC spokeswoman told The Epoch Times in an email.
“A decision was made across the usual leadership in the U.S. government to have the passengers stay in Nebraska until May 31,” Dr. David Fitter, the CDC’s response manager for hantavirus, told reporters on a call on Tuesday.
The CDC has said that there are no cases of the type of hantavirus found on the cruise ship in the United States.
“Quarantine is a public health measure, available at the federal, state, and county level, and used as necessary to protect communities,” the CDC statement said.
“CDC will continue to coordinate with state and local health authorities as we work together to come up with the best solutions to protect the health and safety of these passengers.”
Some other Americans who were sailing on the Hondius, which departed from Argentina on April 1 and has since returned to the Netherlands for disinfection following the disembarkation of all passengers, left the ship before the hantavirus outbreak was confirmed.
Those people have been in quarantine at their homes in various states, authorities have said.
Ten cases, including eight confirmed through laboratory testing, have been reported among people who were on the Hondius, according to the World Health Organization. No secondary cases have been reported.
“While additional cases may still occur among passengers and crew members exposed before containment measures were implemented, the risk of onward transmission is expected to be reduced following disembarkation and the implementation of control measures, including rapid identification and isolation of suspected cases,” the organization said in a May 15 brief.