New cases of hantavirus have been confirmed in a French woman and an American man who were traveling on the affected cruise ship and have since returned to their respective countries.

Source: Reuters Caption: The American passenger was among a group of 17 compatriots who disembarked from the MV Hondius cruise ship in Tenerife. Author: Jaroslav Lukiv Author title: Digital News, BBC 16 minutes Reading time: 5 min A U.S. citizen and a French citizen who returned to their countries after disembarking from the cruise ship affected by a deadly hantavirus outbreak have tested positive for the infection, according to authorities. The U.S. Department of Health reported that a second U.S. citizen on board the repatriation flight also showed mild symptoms, adding that both passengers had traveled back in "biocontainment units out of an abundance of caution." The French Minister of Health, Stéphanie Rist, said that a woman was in quarantine and her health was deteriorating, with 22 contact cases being traced. More than 90 passengers from the MV Hondius cruise ship, currently docked in the Canary Islands of Spain, are being repatriated. Three passengers, a Dutch couple and a German woman, have died after traveling on the ship. Two of them have been confirmed to have the virus. Hantavirus is typically carried by rodents, but human transmission of the Andean strain - which the World Health Organization (WHO) believes was contracted by some of the Dutch passengers when the ship was in South America - is possible. Symptoms can include fever, extreme fatigue, muscle pain, stomach upset, vomiting, diarrhea, and respiratory distress. Authorities say the risk of widespread transmission is low. More popular and continue reading Most popular Source: Getty Images Caption: The HM Hondius is anchored off the coast of the Canary Islands, Spain. Podcast and continue reading Improbable The new BBC Mundo podcast about a love that triumphed against all odds Episodes Podcast end In a statement released early Monday, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said that all 17 U.S. passengers on the flight "will be evaluated clinically" at a medical center in Nebraska. Seven other U.S. passengers have already returned and are being monitored in their home states. A British citizen living in the U.S. was evacuated with the 17 U.S. passengers. Before the case in the U.S. was confirmed, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned that the decision made by the U.S. not to follow its organization's guidelines on the hantavirus outbreak "could pose risks." The WHO recommended a 42-day isolation period for those disembarking from the MV Hondius. However, Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, acting director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), said he did not want to cause public panic, insisting that human-to-human transmission was rare and should not be treated like the COVID virus. Cruise passengers were photographed wearing blue gowns, peaked caps, and custom-made face masks as they disembarked on Sunday at the Grandilla port in Tenerife. There were five French citizens on board the ship. On Sunday, a plane carrying 20 British citizens landed in the UK. The passengers arrived at Manchester Airport on a chartered flight from Tenerife and were transported to Arrowe Park Hospital in Wirral, Merseyside, for a 72-hour isolation period. None have reported symptoms. Two other Britons with confirmed cases are being treated in the Netherlands and South Africa. Caption: Itinerary of the Dutch passenger who died on board the MV Hondius. A senior Dutch man was the first passenger to die on board the MV Hondius on April 11. He had previously developed symptoms, but his case is only considered probable because he was not tested. His wife, a 69-year-old woman, disembarked the ship on the island of Santa Helena on April 24 and flew to South Africa. She died two days later at a clinic in Johannesburg. A German woman died on board the cruise ship on May 2. Both women are confirmed cases of the infection. The MV Hondius departed from the southern Argentine city of Ushuaia on April 1 and is currently docked at the port of Granadilla, in the south of Tenerife. Click here to read more stories from BBC News Mundo. Subscribe here to our new newsletter to receive a selection of our best content of the week every Friday. And remember that you can receive notifications in our app. Download the latest version and activate them.