Acting CDC Director Jay Bhattacharya said he does not expect the hantavirus outbreak on a cruise ship to become a pandemic similar to COVID-19, and said the Americans who were on the ship have been taken to an isolation facility.
“This is, again, not like COVID, and the CDC has been working very closely with our international partners, our state and local partners,” Bhattacharya said on Fox News on Saturday morning.
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So far, eight people have been diagnosed with the virus as part of the cluster linked to the ship. Three people have died. All have been diagnosed with the Andes strain of the virus, which researchers suspect can be transmitted via human contact.
Seventeen Americans were on board the ship and are being taken to Nebraska for treatment, according to the acting director.
“Had a great call with the governor of Nebraska this morning … it will be a self-isolation,” Bhattacharya said. None of these folks have any symptoms at all. We’re going to … have them isolate for about 42 days. That’s what the literature says.”
President Donald Trump commented on the outbreak on Thursday, saying he thinks the situation is under control.
“It’s very much, we hope, under control,” Trump said. “There was the ship, and I think we’re going to make a full report about it tomorrow. We have a lot of people — it’s a lot of great people are studying it. It should be fine. We hope.”
Workers prepare the area where passengers from the MV Hondius cruise ship are expected to arrive at the port of Granadilla in Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain, Friday, May 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez) 
Passengers on the the hantavirus-stricken cruise ship, MV Hondius, watch epidemiologists board the boat in Praia, during their voyage to Spain’s port of Tenerife, May 6, 2026. (AP Photo) 
The MV Hondius cruise ship departs the port in Praia, Cape Verde, Wednesday, May 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Misper Apawu) 
Health workers in protective gear evacuate patients from the MV Hondius cruise ship at a port in Praia, Cape Verde, Wednesday, May 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Misper Apawu) 
Health workers in protective gear arrive to evacuate patients from the MV Hondius cruise ship at a port in Praia, Cape Verde, Wednesday, May 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Misper Apawu)
This isn’t the first hantavirus outbreak the U.S. has dealt with before. Notably, actor Gene Hackman and his wife Betsy Arakawa died from hantavirus in February 2025.
Experts don’t consider hantavirus to be as transmissible as other viruses, such as COVID-19, and have urged calm as officials handle evacuating the ship where the cluster originated. The ship, MV Hondius, traveled from Argentina to St Helena, where a few passengers were evacuated so they could get treatment in Johannesburg, South Africa. Those patients later died.
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The ship is now headed to the Canary Island, where Spanish officials are preparing to evacuate the remaining passenger.s
“My message to the American people is, please don’t worry,” Bhattacharya said. “This is not one of those things like COVID, where there’s 15 different alarm bells. And the CDC team that is tracking this is absolutely amazing.”
