Gov. Jim Pillen (R-NE) announced on Tuesday that five U.S. citizens quarantined in Nebraska after being exposed to hantavirus on a cruise ship are heading back home. 

Eighteen people aboard the MV Hondius cruise ship were taken to the United States in May for monitoring after a hantavirus outbreak was linked to the vessel. Sixteen were taken to the prestigious University of Nebraska Medical Center’s National Quarantine Unit, while two others were sent to Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. Five individuals quartered in Nebraska have now been authorized to complete their 42-day quarantine period at their homes, roughly three weeks after first arriving in Omaha following a deadly outbreak of hantavirus on the ship traveling in the South Atlantic Ocean.