What next for US passengers evacuated from hantavirus-hit cruise ship?

Seventeen American passengers from a virus-hit cruise ship docked in Spain's Canary Islands are being flown by a government charter plane to be evaluated at a US medical facility.

When they arrive at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in the city of Omaha they will be screened by medical officials who will determine whether they are sick and in need of treatment, or healthy enough to return to their homes.

They are among more than 90 passengers of the MV Hondius who were being evacuated on Sunday. Officials say the risk of a major outbreak is very low.

Seven other US passengers have already returned and are being monitored in their home states.

The passengers were pictured wearing blue gowns, bouffant caps, and medical face masks as they disembarked on Sunday at the port of Grandilla de Abona in Tenerife.

A British national who resides in the US was being evacuated along with the 17 American passengers.

The acting director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said on Sunday that the agency was interviewing the MV Hondius cruise ship passengers before their flight to the US.

Once they arrive in Nebraska, officials will "assess them for risk" to the public, Jay Bhattacharya told CNN.

The passengers will only be considered a threat to public health if they were in close contact with someone experiencing hantavirus symptoms, which is the only way the virus can spread between people.

"If they weren't in close contact with someone who was symptomatic, then we're going to deem them a low risk," said Bhattacharya.

"If they were in close contact, we're going to deem them a medium or high risk.

"At that point, we will offer them alternatives," he continued, adding that it "will include advice given".

This will include an "offer to stay in Nebraska, if they'd like, or if they want to go back home, and their home situation allows it, to safely drive them home without exposing other people on the way", he added.

Once back home, they will continue to be monitored by local health officials, "with the CDC support all the way", said Bhattacharya. The group will be expected to "self-isolate" for 42 days, according to the CDC.

In a call with reporters on Saturday, CDC officials said the passengers would not be tested, since none were currently experiencing symptoms.

The state-of-the-art Nebraska Medical Center, where the passengers will be flown, contains the National Quarantine Unit - the only federally funded quarantine unit in the US.

The 20-bed facility opened in November 2019, just months before the Covid-19 pandemic began.

The rooms are fitted with negative air pressure systems designed to prevent the spread of communicable diseases.

A spokeswoman for the medical centre said the passengers were expected to arrive there "early Monday morning".

In a news conference on Friday, health officials at the facility said none of the passengers was believed to be sick.

"We don't expect to see any of these passengers transported off on a gurney," said the centre's director, Professor John Lowe.

"They're going to walk off a plane and walk into a vehicle and get driven over here and head into their quarantine room."

Dr Michael Wadman, director of the National Quarantine Unit, said the passengers would have lots of freedom. He likened their stay to a hotel trip.

"It's pretty much like living in a hotel room with delivery of food," he said. "They can use their exercise devices in the room, we do daily symptom and monitoring as well as vital sign checks."

If anyone was found to be ill, they would be taken to the Nebraska Biocontainment Unit, which is housed at the same medical facility, he said.

The facility is for patients with "high-consequence infectious diseases".

Officials continue to emphasise that hantavirus should not be compared to Covid-19, which was much easier to spread.

"This is not Covid," said Bhattacharya. "And we don't want to treat it like Covid."

"We don't want to cause a public panic over this.

"We want to treat it with the hantavirus protocols that were successful in containing outbreaks in the past."

At least seven passengers from the same cruise ship have already returned to the US.

State health departments are monitoring them for possible infections: two in Georgia, two in Texas, one in Virginia, one in Arizona and an unspecified number in California.