BURST
Four passengers aboard a cruise ship stricken with a potentially deadly hantavirus outbreak have arrived in B.C. for a 21-day quarantine.
The passengers were screened and assessed by Island Heath public health officials after arriving at Victoria International Airport on Sunday night.
“All four were and continue to be well and have no symptoms,” B.C.’s provincial health officer, Dr. Bonnie Henry, told a news conference in Victoria on Monday. “This is reassuring but as we talked about yesterday we are in a very critical phase of the incubation period.”
The four did not have known direct contact with anyone infected, said Henry.
While it is difficult to know for certain in the closed environment of a cruise ship, officials consider the passengers to be low risk based on the location of their cabins and their activities on board, she said
The passengers are a couple in their 70s who live in the Yukon, a person in their 70s who lives in Vancouver Island, and a person in their 50s who is from B.C. but lives abroad.
The person from Vancouver Island is quarantining at home, while the others are in accommodations procured by Island Health. They are not in a health-care facility.
Henry said the group had endured a difficult few weeks. “They were tired, I’d say exhausted, but very relieved and grateful to be back here in Canada,” she said.
The passengers will remain in full quarantine for the duration of the 21-day period, considered the highest-risk window for developing symptoms. Health officials will reassess whether the quarantine needs to be extended depending on how the individuals are feeling and whether symptoms emerge.
The four are among about 150 passengers and crew of the MV Hondius who were flown home and placed in quarantine after the hantavirus-stricken vessel docked in Spain’s Canary Island on Sunday. The four flown to B.C. were carried in an aircraft chartered by the government of Canada.
Three passengers have died, and seven others infected, according to the World Health Organization.
Hantavirus is a rare infection spread primarily by rodents. The virus can cause severe and sometimes fatal illnesses in humans.
While the virus is uncommon, person-to-person transmission, which has occurred in this outbreak, is even rarer, Henry said, as she sought to reassure the public who may be feeling unsettled following the global pandemic caused by COVID-19.
Unlike COVID, hantavirus is not highly transmittable, said Henry. “It is not a disease of pandemic potential. It is, however, very serious.”