This sample was received during the early hours of Sunday, according to sources from the regional administration. The patient was a passenger on a plane from which a person who later died was evacuated, and had also traveled on the cruise ship MV Hondius.

The National Microbiology Center confirmed this Saturday that the initial PCR performed on the patient admitted in Alicante yielded a negative result for hantavirus. However, the established protocol for such cases provides for a second test to be carried out after 24 hours.

The 32-year-old woman was admitted on Friday to an isolation room with negative pressure. She presented mild respiratory symptoms, mainly a cough, after having shared a flight with one of the passengers from the cruise ship MV Hondius who later died.

According to the protocol, if the second PCR again tests negative, the patient will be considered a contact with quarantine at the Gómez Ulla Central Defense Hospital in Madrid. If, on the contrary, the result is positive, she would be transferred to the High-Level Isolation and Treatment Unit (UATAN) at La Fe Hospital.