Quarantine has ended for the 18 Americans who were cruise ship passengers on the MV Hondius and were exposed to hantavirus more than one month ago.

Hantavirus Exposure

The 42-day monitoring period ended on June 21 and “no sustained transmission” of the virus has been identified in the U.S., a spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) told ABC News.

Six of the 18 passengers spent their entire quarantine period at the National Quarantine Unit (NQU) in Nebraska while others left on a case-by-case basis over the past few weeks depending on whether their state provided adequate public health mitigation efforts.

One of the quarantined Americans, Jake Rosmarin, shared a video on Instagram of a countdown clock hitting zero and him starting to cry. Rosmarin wrote that the countdown clock was set up by NQU for those at the facility.

He said his group was offered a tour of the facility after exiting quarantine and had dinner with the staff. “I got to get fresh air without a mask on for the first time in 42 days,” he wrote on another photo posted on Instagram.

Background on Hantavirus

The World Health Organization (WHO) said it received notification on May 2 of a cluster of “severe acute respiratory illness” aboard the MV Hondius, including two deaths and one critically ill passenger.

As of May 27, there have been a total of 13 cases of hantavirus — 11 confirmed and two probable — and three deaths, of which two have been confirmed, according to the WHO. All cases have been passengers or crew members on the ship.

The working hypothesis behind the cluster is that the first case acquired hantavirus while on land, before boarding the cruise ship, the WHO said.

The 11 confirmed cases tested positive for Andes virus, a rare strain of hantavirus, and the only one that is known to transmit between people, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Original reporting: El Paso News (HLL/CB) — read the source article.