Why experts are divided over where hantavirus cruise passengers should quarantine

Eighteen Americans are now in quarantine in two federal centers after having returned home from the MV Hondius cruise ship.

Eighteen Americans are now in quarantine in two federal centers after having returned home from the MV Hondius cruise ship.

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How long they’ll stay in quarantine or where isn’t clear yet. Now that the passengers have had time to rest up, U.S. health officials are interviewing them to get a better sense of how close the American passengers may have been to infected people — and whether they have the resources, such as separate rooms, to quarantine safely at home.

“We want to do this in the least restrictive way possible,” Dr. Brendan Jackson, acting director of the high-consequence pathogens and pathology division at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said at a media briefing Monday.