NEW YORK -- An American passenger from a hantavirus-hit Dutch cruise ship has tested positive for the virus and another has mild symptoms, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced Sunday.

All 17 American citizens from the MV Hondius cruise ship are currently en route via an airlift to the United States, with the two travelling in the plane's biocontainment units out of an abundance of caution, the department wrote in a post on the social platform X.

The airlift will first take passengers to the Regional Emerging Special Pathogen Treatment Center (RESPTC) at the University of Nebraska Medical Center/Nebraska Medicine in Omaha, Nebraska, before transferring the passenger with mild symptoms to a second RESPTC at their final destination, it said.

"Upon arrival at each facility, each individual will undergo clinical assessment and receive appropriate care and support based on their condition," the department said in the post.

As of Saturday, there were eight suspected cases associated with the outbreak and three deaths, it said.

The incubation period for hantavirus, from first exposure to symptoms, is estimated at one to eight weeks, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The disease is usually spread by rodents but can, in rare cases, move from person to person, and kills more than a third of people infected.