The outbreak of the zoonotic virus, Hantavirus, is being cautiously treated by the World Health Organization (WHO), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and health authorities in Europe as a low-level risk to the general public.
According to People:
“President Donald Trump says hantavirus is “very much, we hope, under control” and that he hopes Americans have no reason to worry about the rare, flu-like virus that has been connected to three deaths aboard the cruise ship MV Hondius.
“But the president who oversaw the first year of the U.S. government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic hedged his statements in remarks to the press on Thursday, May 7.
““It’s very much, we hope, under control. There was the ship and I think we’re going to make a full report about it tomorrow,” Trump said during an impromptu trip to examine the renovations to the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. “We have a lot of people, it’s a lot of great people are studying it. It should be fine. We hope.”
“He did not expand on the “full report” he referenced and it was unclear which agency or official would be briefing the public on the U.S. response to the virus.
“When pressed by a reporter whether Americans should be concerned, Trump said “I mean, I hope not.”
““We’ll do the best we can,” the president, 79, added.”
Six (6) Americans disembarked the MV Hondius on April 24 in St. Helena, the cruise ship’s operator Oceanwide Expeditions said on Thursday. Another seventeen (17) Americans are aboard the ship as it remains off the coast of Cape Verde in West Africa.
Health officials in at least four (4) states in the United States (US) — Arizona, California, Georgia and Virginia — are monitoring residents who returned after alighting the MV Hondius.
However, none have yet shown symptoms and authorities said the risk to the general public remains low.
