One of the 17 Americans being repatriated from a hantavirus-struck luxury cruise ship in the Canary Islands has tested mildly positive for the Andes strain of the virus while a second has mild symptoms.
All the US citizens are being airlifted to the United States, and the two passengers with symptoms are travelling in the plane's biocontainment units, the US Department of Health and Human Services said.
The second symptomatic passenger had not yet been confirmed as having the virus.
Groups of passengers and crew from 23 countries have now all disembarked from the cruise ship hit by the deadly hantavirus outbreak and are returning to their home countries where they will isolate to prevent further spread of the disease.
Government planes carrying Spanish and French citizens landed in Madrid and Paris on Sunday afternoon, where the passengers were transported to hospital, according to the two countries' governments.
One of the five French passengers showed symptoms during the repatriation flight, French Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu said on X.
Planes to Canada, the Netherlands, Turkey, the United Kingdom, Ireland and the United States were due to depart on Sunday evening, with the final two flights - Australian and New Zealand planes - departing on Monday afternoon.
One flight from Australia will carry six passengers and another from New Zealand will take 18 passengers, with both flights also taking passengers from other countries which did not send their own repatriation flights, officials said.
The passengers will be tested upon arrival and then either taken to local hospitals or quarantine facilities or transported home for isolation.
The World Health Organisation has recommended a 42-day quarantine for all passengers from the MV Hondius from Sunday, its director of epidemic and pandemic management Maria Van Kerkhove said in a briefing.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus reiterated that the general public should not be worried about the outbreak.
"We have been repeating the same answer many times," he said. "This is not another COVID. And the risk to the public is low. So they shouldn't be scared, and they shouldn't panic."
Even so, those disembarking and workers at the port of Granadilla in Tenerife wore protective gear during the evacuation process, including hazardous-materials suits, face masks and respirators.
Video obtained by The Associated Press showed passengers on the tarmac donning similar suits and being sprayed down with disinfectant.
Hantaviruses are a group of viruses that are usually spread by rodents but in rare cases can be transmitted person to person.
Eight people no longer on the MV Hondius have fallen ill, with six of them confirmed to have contracted the virus.
A Dutch couple and a German national have died.
The Andes strain of hantavirus, identified in the ship's outbreak, can cause severe lung illness that can be fatal in up to 50 per cent of cases, according to the WHO.
But the Andes virus detected in the cruise ship outbreak may be able to spread between people in rare cases. Symptoms usually show between one and eight weeks after exposure.
The US State Department's airlift will transport passengers to the ASPR Regional Emerging Special Pathogen Treatment Center (RESPTC) at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, Nebraska, and the passenger with mild symptoms will be taken to a second RESPTC.
with AP