By Brenda Goodman, CNN
(CNN) — The US government is prepared to allow American passengers who were exposed to a unique strain of hantavirus to return home as early as Monday, provided their states post a monitor outside their homes 24/7 for the remaining three weeks of their six-week quarantine.
It could be a police officer or a public health worker, according to two of the passengers now in quarantine in Nebraska, who participated in a video call with government officials Thursday. The passengers, who asked not to be named for fear of retaliation, said the purpose of the call was to explain the logistics of how they could return home.
The passengers are part of a group of 18 Americans who were on board the MV Hondius cruise ship as it sailed to some of the most remote islands in the South Atlantic this spring. On board the ship, several passengers became severely ill, and two died before the illness was identified as the Andes strain of hantavirus, which can spread from person to person.
There have been 13 total cases of Andes hantavirus linked to the ship and three deaths. It can take up to six weeks for a person who’s been exposed to the virus to show symptoms, which is why the World Health Organization has recommended that the passengers remain in quarantine for 42 days after they return to their home countries.
The 18 Americans, who disembarked May 10 in the Canary Islands have been quarantined at the National Quarantine Unit at the University of Nebraska Medical Center.
Officials had previously said that the passengers would be allow to complete their quarantines at home. At the time, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued guidelines to states for the monitoring of exposed cruise passengers, recommending that health departments visit each passenger twice daily in person. Infectious disease experts said this plan was overkill because health departments already keep tabs on patients with infectious diseases such as tuberculosis using less onerous methods like regular phone calls.
At least two of the passengers asked to finish their quarantines at home but were given federal orders requiring them to stay at the National Quarantine Unit through May 31. Others have elected to spend the full 42 days at the facility.
Because of the unusual new requirement that a monitor be posted outside the person’s home for the last half of the required 42-day quarantine period, at least one state, New York, has balked at letting passengers return, according to two passengers who participated in Thursday’s call with CDC officials.
On the call, officials said that so far, New York is the only state to decline to allow passengers to return to finish their quarantines at home.
“This is not acceptable,” one of the passengers, who asked not to be named for fear of retaliation, told CNN. “We’re not f*cking criminals. Unless you have a good reason to think that we are going to not comply, then treat us with respect.”
The New York State Department of Health and the press office for New York Gov. Kathy Hochul did not respond to CNN’s requests for comment. Discussions on the decision are still ongoing, according to the passengers, who are hopeful the state will reconsider.
“Throughout the response to the hantavirus outbreak, the CDC’s top priority has been the health and safety of the returned U.S. passengers and American communities. The CDC continues to work with passengers and state and local health departments on the disposition of passengers during their 42-day monitoring period,” the US Department of Health and Human Services said in a statement to CNN on Thursday.
Asked on the video call Thursday
By Scottie Andrew, CNN
(CNN) — Cywyddau. Taurokathapsia. Natchitoches.
Shrey Parikh correctly spelled these and more tricky terms to win the Scripps National Spelling Bee, which ended in a tense and record-breaking speed round.
The 14-year-old Californian survived 18 regular rounds of the spelling competition plus a “spell-off” tiebreaker, during which he correctly spelled an unprecedented 32 words in 90 seconds. He won with “bromocriptine,” a “polypeptide alkaloid that is a derivative of ergot and mimics the activity of dopamine.”
It was Shrey’s third time at the big bee and his final year of eligibility, but he had come close to victory before: He finished third in 2024 and shockingly missed the cut for the national competition last year, so he took six months off from spelling before reopening his Merriam-Webster dictionary.
Runner-up Ishaan Gupta, 12, put up an impressive 25 words in the spell-off. Three-time bee veteran Sarv Dharavane finished in third place for the second year straight. He misspelled “disa,” a tropical African terrestrial orchid.
Parikh barely broke a sweat through “philepitta” and “potto,” terms for genuses of an African bird and primate, respectively. Upon winning, the eighth-grader said the final round of the bee felt like “just another day of spelling.”
“Spelling fast is what I do every day,” Shrey said while hoisting the Scripps Cup high. “A spell-off just came naturally.”
Spell-offs, which were introduced in 2021, are becoming something of a biannual trend at the National Spelling Bee: The 2022 and 2024 winners were determined in the speed rounds. But Shrey beat both of those winners’ records with 32 correct spellings out of around 35 words.
The preternaturally professional young competitors made it through rounds of obscure nouns like “hwyl” and “Igdyr.” Fifth-place finisher Logan Bailey couldn’t believe his luck when he correctly spelled “ceutorhynchus,” used to describe “a large nearly cosmopolitan genus of weevils.” He was ultimately felled by “Quincke tube,” though he was briefly delighted when longtime bee pronouncer Jacques Bailly referenced “KPop Demon Hunters” in a sentence that included the term.
As champion, Shrey takes home more than $50,000 in cash prizes, plus a trip to the Universal Orlando Resort theme parks. Merriam-Webster offers the winner a one-year subscription to its unabridged online reference book, too, should he, for some unknown reason, need it.
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