Cruise passenger says Nebraska quarantine is against her will
Angela Perryman told TODAY she has not tested positive for hantavirus and wants to complete a six-week quarantine in Florida.
By Tom Brennan · Health & Medicine Correspondent
2 min read
An American passenger from a cruise affected by hantavirus says she is being kept in a federal quarantine facility in Nebraska against her will. The case matters because her lawyers say officials have not agreed on how her quarantine should be handled, according to NBC’s Maggie Vespa reporting for TODAY.
The passenger, Angela Perryman, told TODAY she wants to leave Nebraska and complete the rest of a six-week quarantine in Florida, her home state. Perryman said she has never tested positive for hantavirus.
“I'm being held hostage,” Perryman told TODAY.
According to TODAY, Perryman said she cries every day while in quarantine and is desperate to return to Florida for the remainder of the isolation period. The report described the facility as a federal quarantine site in Nebraska.
Lawyers cite disagreement over quarantine plan
Perryman’s attorneys told TODAY that the problem is a lack of agreement between health officials and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention over what the quarantine arrangement should look like.
TODAY did not report that Perryman had tested positive for hantavirus. The report said she had been aboard the cruise that was affected by the virus.
No further details were given in the TODAY report about the cruise, the number of passengers affected, or the specific federal authority being used to keep Perryman in Nebraska.
The TODAY segment aired June 11, 2026, with Vespa reporting on Perryman’s effort to leave the Nebraska facility and finish quarantine in Florida.
This story draws on original reporting from TODAY.com.