A FRENCH woman and an American passenger evacuated from the hantavirus-stricken cruise ship MV Hondius have tested positive for the virus after leaving the vessel in Tenerife.
The US Department of Health said one of the 17 American citizens evacuated from the ship tested positive for hantavirus during the flight back to Omaha, Nebraska.
Another passenger is ‘exhibiting mild symptoms’ but has not yet returned a positive test.
They added that both passengers had travelled back in ‘biocontainment units out of an abundance of caution’.
American passengers will quarantine at the University of Nebraska, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
French Health Minister, Stephanie Rist, also confirmed France’s first case of the virus with one of the five French nationals evacuated testing positive.
All five passengers have been placed in strict isolation in Paris.
Spain’s Ministry of Health, the World Health Organization (WHO) and cruise operator Oceanwide Expeditions had previously said that none of the more than 140 passengers and crew aboard the Hondius had shown symptoms.
The positive cases come after over 90 passengers on the Hondius have been evacuated and flown home following docking in Tenerife.
Among them are 14 Spaniards who have been flown to Madrid to quarantine at a military hospital in the capital.
Meanwhile, the 20 British nationals on board the ship were flown to Manchester.
They will isolate at Merseyside’s Arrowe Park Hospital for 3 days and then self-isolate at home for a further 42 days.
Public Health Minister Sharon Hodgson said that none of the evacuees are ‘symptomatic’ and stated that the ‘risk to the public remains extremely low.’
Two British nationals, however, have tested positive for the virus and are receiving treatment in the Netherlands and South Africa.
Three people, a Dutch couple and a German woman, have died after travelling on the MS Hondius.
Two of them are confirmed to have had hantavirus.
WHO Director Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus reiterated that the ‘risk to the public is low’ and that, ‘this is not another Covid.’
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