Hantavirus outbreak not another COVID pandemic, public health risk remains low: WHO

New Delhi: The World Health Organization (WHO) on Saturday said the hantavirus outbreak is not another COVID pandemic, and the current public health risk remains low.

WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a message that “I know you are worried”.

“The pain of 2020 is still real, and I do not dismiss it for a single moment. But I need you to hear me clearly: this is not another COVID. The current public health risk from hantavirus remains low. My colleagues and I have said this unequivocally, and I will say it again to you now,” he wrote.

The virus aboard the MV Hondius ship is the Andes strain of hantavirus. A total of eight Hantavirus cases, including three deaths, have been reported so far.

“It is serious. Three people have lost their lives, and our hearts go out to their families. Right now, there are no symptomatic passengers on board. A WHO expert is on that ship. Medical supplies are in place,” said the WHO chief.

Spain’s authorities have prepared a careful, step-by-step plan: passengers will be ferried ashore at the industrial port of Granadilla, far from residential areas, in sealed, guarded vehicles, through a completely cordoned-off corridor, and repatriated directly to their home countries.

“I personally thanked Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez for Spain’s decision to receive this ship. I called it an act of solidarity and moral duty. Because that is what it is. I want you to know that the WHO’s request to Spain was not made arbitrarily. It was made in full accordance with the International Health Regulations,” said Ghebreyesus in his message.

Nearly 150 people from 23 countries have been at sea for weeks, some of them grieving, all of them frightened, all of them longing for home.

“Tenerife has been chosen because it has the medical capacity, the infrastructure, and the humanity to help them reach safety,” he added.

The ship’s captain, Jan Dobrogowski, crew, and the company operating the vessel have shown exemplary collaboration at this challenging time.

“On behalf of the World Health Organization, and on behalf of those passengers and their families around the world, I thank the people of Tenerife and everyone else involved,” he added.

WHO assesses the risk to the global population posed by this event as low and will continue to monitor the epidemiological situation.

–IANS