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Quarantine in Nebraska
Seventeen Americans and a dual British-U.S. citizen evacuated from the MV Hondius arrived in the United States early Monday, with one American passenger “tested mildly PCR positive for the Andes virus” and another beginning to show symptoms, according to the Department of Health and Human Services.
“tested mildly PCR positive for the Andes virus”
The flight landed in Omaha early Monday, and a convoy, ambulance and multiple buses took passengers to the University of Nebraska Medical Center, where 16 would stay for monitoring in Nebraska quarantine and biocontainment units.
Of the Nebraska group, 15 people were taken to the National Quarantine Unit at the medical center while another person was taken to a biocontainment unit there, and Angela Hewlett said the biocontainment patient was “doing well” and did not have any symptoms as of Monday morning.
Michael Wadman said the 15 in the quarantine unit “were in good shape” and “in good spirits,” and he described the transfer as smooth, safe and successful as the CDC’s Brendan Jackson said the agency was sending a team to the Canary Islands to conduct an exposure risk assessment for each American passenger.
WHO and public risk
As the repatriation operation continued from Tenerife in Spain’s Canary Islands, the World Health Organization said it had reported at least nine cases of hantavirus, including three deaths, and NPR quoted a WHO framing that “the risk to the public is low.”
In the U.S., Dr. Brian Christine said, “The Andes variant of this virus does not spread easily, and it requires prolonged close contact with someone who is already symptomatic,” while the CBS News report said passengers were “travelling in the plane's biocontainment units out of an abundance of caution.”
NPR also reported that the National Quarantine Unit features 20 negative-pressure rooms and that the quarantine unit was completed in late 2019 at a cost nearly $20 million, while it described the separate Nebraska Biocontainment Unit as a 10-bed capacity facility with rooftop HEPA filtration and dedicated air-handling.
At the same time, CBS News said the CDC had activated an exposure-risk assessment and monitoring approach, and it described the disembarkation process in Tenerife as involving protective gear including face masks, hazmat suits and respirators for those disembarking and port workers.
International tracking and next steps
Beyond Nebraska, the operation involved multiple countries and flights, with NPR describing that the MV Hondius carried nearly 150 people from more than 15 countries when it set sail earlier this week from Cape Verde to Granadilla after Spain agreed to take the ship.
“tests came back positive”
The Guardian reported that a French woman and an American national evacuated from the ship tested positive, and it quoted French health minister Stéphanie Rist saying the woman’s “tests came back positive” and that “her symptoms worsened overnight.”
In the U.S., NBC News said the 18 Americans would stay at UNMC for a few days for assessments and that “a full 42-day monitoring period will be required for all of those who were on the ship,” while it also reported that two passengers were taken to Emory University Hospital in Atlanta with one in biocontainment for mild symptoms and another being monitored as a close contact.
NPR added that the quarantine and biocontainment approach was designed for highly hazardous and infectious diseases and noted that the biocontainment unit was used in 2014 to treat two doctors infected with Ebola, as the WHO recommended close monitoring of former passengers and many countries quarantined them.
