Seventeen Americans still aboard the hantavirus-stricken MV Hondius cruise ship are expected to be evacuated to a quarantine center in Nebraska in the coming days, the CDC said Sunday.

The ship docked in Tenerife on Sunday as officials began removing 147 passengers in stages. The passengers, who come from about a dozen countries, are being taken off by nationality, with 13 Spanish nationals set to disembark before the Americans.

The U.S. passengers are expected to be flown on a government medical repatriation flight to the National Quarantine Unit, which is overseen by Nebraska Medicine and the University of Nebraska Medical Center. The facility, described as the only federally funded quarantine unit in the country, has 20 single-occupancy rooms with private bathrooms and negative air pressure systems.

The CDC said it will also deploy a team to Offutt Air Force Base in Bellevue, Nebraska, to support the public health assessment of returning passengers. Health officials are expected to allow the Americans to leave the quarantine facility if they agree to six weeks of additional monitoring, following a WHO recommendation for a 42-day isolation period.

Acting CDC Director Jay Bhattacharya sought to calm public concern Sunday, saying the outbreak should be handled through existing hantavirus protocols. “This is not COVID. This is not going to lead to the [same] kind of outbreak,” he told CNN, adding, “We shouldn’t be panicking when the evidence doesn’t warrant it.”

At least three passengers aboard the Hondius have died and five others became seriously ill. Hantavirus has a reported fatality rate of about 38%.