A flight carrying U.S. citizens who were on the ship arrived Monday in Nebraska.
Passengers onboard the MV Hondius cruise ship started disembarking Sunday in Tenerife, in the Canary Islands, to be transferred to charter flights back to their home countries.
The total number of confirmed and probable cases of hantavirus onboard the ship has risen to 10, including two people confirmed to have died from the virus and one person who remains suspected to have died from the virus.
On Monday, 16 American cruise ship passengers arrived at the University of Nebraska Medical Center; 15 are in the quarantine unit and one person is in the biocontainment unit, officials said. Two other American cruise ship passengers were flown to Atlanta "for further assessment and care," officials said.
Here's what you need to know about hantavirus including what it is, how it spreads, how it's treated and if there are any prevention methods:
Hantaviruses are a family of viruses that can cause serious illnesses and death, according to the CDC.
Hantaviruses may also spread from person to person, but that also is rare and only suspected for one subtype, the Andes virus, from South America, according to the WHO.
There are currently no approved vaccines anywhere in the world that specifically protect against the Andes virus, but scientists are working on it.
Read more about hantavirus here.
The "risk of hantavirus to the general public remains very, very low," Dr. Brian Christine, Assistant Secretary for Health at the Department of Health and Human Services, said at a news conference on Monday.
The Andes variant "does not spread easily, and it requires prolonged, close contact with someone who is already symptomatic," he assured.
Even though, he said, the department has taken the situation "very seriously from the very start."
Fifteen passengers were welcomed to the University of Nebraska Medical Center's quarantine unit Monday morning and one person is in the biocontainment unit, according to the unit's medical director, Dr. Mike Waldman.
The quarantine unit is more like a hotel, while the biocontainment unit is patient-based care, more like a hospital, officials said.
The 15 passengers at the quarantine unit are in "good spirits," Waldman said.
"We've been doing symptom monitoring, as well as temperature checks," he said. "Everyone here is asymptomatic and ... do not have a temperature at this time. They're all resting now and we'll do further assessments later in the day, once they've had a chance to sleep," he said.
The one person in the biocontainment unit is doing well and does not have symptoms, but is "very tired" after a "really long journey," officials said.
Besides the 16 cruise ship passengers in Nebraska, two cruise ship passengers were flown to Atlanta "for further assessment and care," officials said.
Initial genetic analyses confirmed that the hantavirus on the Hondius cruise ship is of the "known Andes variant and rule out any relevant mutations," Spanish Health Minister Monica Garcia said in a post on social media.
Jan Dobrogowski, the captain of the Hondius, recorded a message thanking passengers and crew for their patience during the "extremely challenging" last few weeks.
"What touched me the most, what moved me the most, was your patience, your discipline, and also kindness -- kindness that you show to each other. ... I've witnessed your caring, your unity and quiet strength," Dobrogowski said, according to the Associated Press.
He added, "Our thoughts are with the ones that are no longer with us. ... This can be very painful to the people on board, especially already dealing with grief, worry and perhaps uncertainty."
