90-Second Read: CDC declares ‘Level 3′ emergency response to Hantavirus outbreak

The Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has classified the Hantavirus outbreak as a Level 3 emergency, which is the agency's lowest level. A Level 2 designation would require the agency's Hantavirus experts to lead the response with a large number of other experts. The World Health Organization (WHO) considers the risk to the wider public from the outbreak as low, and on Friday, confirmed that a flight attendant on a plane briefly boarded by an infected cruise passenger had tested negative. As part of the designation, the CDC is assigning disease experts to lead its response, and has activated its Emergency Operations Centers to assist. CDC staffers are on their way to meet an estimated 17 Americans on board the MV Hondius, the Dutch-flagged cruise ship at.

This is not a new COVID." RELATED: WHO says confirmed Hantavirus cases from cruise ship has risen to 5 None of the remaining passengers or crew on the ship is currently symptomatic, the Netherlands-based Oceanwide Expeditions cruise ship company said Thursday. Meanwhile, the CDC is working with five states — Georgia, Arizona, California, Texas and Virginia — to monitor seven passengers who previously disembarked from the ship. It wasn't until May 2 that health authorities first confirmed Hantavirus in a ship passenger, the WHO said. Those passengers will be flown to Nebraska on a charter flight to quarantine at the National Quarantine Unit at the University of Nebraska Medical Center and Nebraska Medicine, officials said Friday. The dedicated biocontainment and quarantine unit in Omaha previously was used to treat Ebola.

The designation, the agency's lowest level, means the CDC is actively monitoring the situation, but the risk to the general public is low. The risk remains absolutely low," he said of the virus outbreak. The CDC said none of the seven passengers are showing symptoms of the rare illness. Hantavirus is usually spread by the inhalation of contaminated rodent droppings and isn't easily transmitted between people. Christian Lindmeier, a WHO spokesman, said Friday her negative result should alleviate panic.

Her possible infection had raised concerns about the virus's potential transmissibility. One of them is from Brunswick, according to Atlanta News First's sister station WTOC in Savannah. Symptoms usually show between one and eight weeks after exposure.