The Trump administration has committed $750,000 to charter a private yacht to evacuate a single American citizen from Pitcairn Island, a remote British territory in the South Pacific, after she may have been exposed to hantavirus while aboard a cruise ship at the center of a deadly outbreak, according to two U.S. officials and an internal government document obtained by The Associated Press.
The woman had been aboard the Dutch MV Hondius cruise liner in April during a hantavirus outbreak that has killed three people. She disembarked, flew to San Francisco, and then traveled through Tahiti before arriving on Pitcairn Island, an isolated territory with no airport, the officials said. Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the case is covered by U.S. privacy laws.
The exact total cost of the evacuation operation is still being assessed because the mission remains underway, the officials said. The $750,000 figure covers the initial charter of the private yacht.
The cost of the operation has further strained the State Department’s emergency budget, the officials said. The U.S. government has faced similar costly evacuations from remote locations in the past, though the per-person expense of this case is unusually high.
MSI has reported extensively on the hantavirus outbreak aboard the MV Hondius, including the evacuation of other passengers and the rising case count. See the related stories for full coverage.