Five of the 18 patients who have been quarantining at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha after being exposed to hantavirus on a cruise ship have left Omaha to continue quarantining at home.
The five all remain symptom-free and have met public health criteria to safely quarantine at home, with monitoring from state and local health officials, according to federal officials and officials at UNMC.
The officials did not say where the patients are from, but at least two of them appear to be from New York.
The New York State Department of Health said over the weekend that it expected two New York residents at the quarantine unit to return home this week to complete their quarantine.
“These two individuals will be transported via non-commercial flights to New York State to complete the remainder of their 42-day monitoring and quarantine period – which ends June 22 – in residences located outside of New York City,” state Health Commissioner Dr. James McDonald said in a news release. One other New York resident is choosing to remain in quarantine in Omaha.
UNMC officials said in a statement that the five passengers did not travel on commercial airplanes, and “appropriate biocontainment measures” were taken during their transport.
The patients, all Americans, have been at the National Quarantine Unit in Omaha since arriving in Omaha on May 12.
They had all been passengers on the MV Hondius cruise ship, which experienced an outbreak of a rare strain of hantavirus, a respiratory illness linked to rodents. So far, there have been 13 cases and three deaths. None of the passengers quarantining in Omaha has shown any symptoms of the disease.
The disease has an incubation period of up to six weeks, and all the passengers are expected to quarantine for that amount of time.
But now that they have reached the halfway point in their quarantine period, the federal government allowed them to return home, provided they agreed to quarantine in their homes for three more weeks and their local and state health departments follow strict guidelines for monitoring them.
One person who plans to remain in quarantine is Jake Rosmarin. Rosmarin, a travel influencer from Boston, has been posting daily on YouTube about his stay in Omaha.
In his latest post, Rosmarin said he’s following the advice of UNMC doctors and also does not want to leave until he’s sure he’s not sick.
“I do not want to leave here until I know that there’s a zero percent chance of me getting sick, a zero percent chance of me risking my family and friends getting sick or the general public getting sick,” he said.
Gov. Jim Pillen issued a statement commending UNMC following the announcement, emphasizing that none of the patients leaving quarantine poses a public health risk.
“This is a positive development and the product of the ongoing partnership between the state of Nebraska, UNMC, and our federal health partners,” the statement said. “While it is encouraging that many of our guests are remaining at the NQU for the last few weeks of their hantavirus quarantine, those who have elected to go home are doing so with a lower risk profile and in close coordination with health authorities in their destination states.”