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Canada’s chief public health officer, Dr. Joss Reimer, says 26 people across the country are being contacted by public health authorities to monitor for hantavirus symptoms, which are being deemed as “low risk.”
She said that all of the passengers shared flights with a confirmed hantavirus case, though they are not considered to be close contacts due to where they were seated on the flight.
She added that European public health officials had deemed the passengers to be at no risk, but Canada is taking a “precautionary approach and we have deemed them to be minimal or low risk as opposed to no risk.” Reimer did not comment on what country the plane flew out from.
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The Public Health Agency of Canada is not advising the 26 low-risk people isolate, but Reimer says provincial and territorial public health agencies may do so as they conduct more detailed risk assessments.
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Currently, nine individuals in Canada in Ontario, Alberta and British Columbia have been classified as high-risk exposure cases and have been directed to self-isolate.
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Ontario public health officials are not testing three passengers currently isolating in the province, citing that the screening won’t yield any results.
Four passengers are also currently isolating in British Columbia, with the province’s top doctor saying that they are in a “very critical phase of the incubation period.”
Alberta health officials said Tuesday their two travelers are self-isolating at home.
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“If they display symptoms, testing will be conducted but, as noted, there have been zero symptoms to date,” said Tom McMillan, spokesperson for the Alberta Primary Health Ministry.
Those nine individuals were either passengers on the affected MV Hondius cruise ship or had close contact with someone infected with hantavirus on a flight.
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Reimer said that no one in Canada has shown any symptoms of hantavirus, and repeated that the “overall risk to the general population” in connection to the outbreak “remains low.”
“We have robust processes and procedures in place and further spread of the virus within Canada is not expected,” she said. “We are taking the situation and our commitment to supporting the health of Canadians, both here and abroad very seriously.”
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