Top doctor explains why number of ‘low risk’ hantavirus contacts in Canada has grown to 26

TORONTO – Canada’s chief public health officer says the country is taking a “precautionary approach” in monitoring people who may have had indirect contact with passengers who were on the hantavirus-stricken MV Hondius cruise ship.  

Provincial and territorial public health authorities are asking 26 people across Canada to monitor for symptoms of hantavirus even though they are deemed “low risk,” said Dr. Joss Reimer at a media briefing on Thursday.  

Reimer said they are all air passengers who shared flights with someone with hantavirus, but it’s believed they didn’t have close contact with anyone who was sick or sit near them. 

European public health officials had classified them as no risk, but Canada has “deemed them to be minimal or low risk as opposed to no risk,” she said. 

There are dozens of hantaviruses in the world but the ship was hit with the Andes type — the only form of the virus known to be capable of person-to-person transmission in rare cases. 

“I want to be clear with Canadians — the overall risk to the general population in connection with the Andes hantavirus event remains low at this time,” Reimer said. 

“But given severity of the symptoms of the virus, we are taking a precautionary approach to ensure that Canadians are protected.”

The Public Health Agency of Canada is not suggesting the low-risk people isolate, but Reimer said provincial and territorial public health agencies may do so as they do more detailed risk assessments.  

Although Reimer said she couldn’t provide specific information on where all 26 people were from, provincial health agencies confirmed 15 of them over the last two days.    

Quebec’s health ministry said Wednesday that eight people in the province may have been exposed but were considered to have a very low risk of developing an infection, and determined they don’t need to isolate as long as they don’t have any symptoms.

Ontario’s ministry of health took a different approach, announcing on Tuesday that it had asked seven low-risk people to isolate.

Reimer said nine people in Canada have been classified as high-risk contacts and are isolating in Ontario, Alberta and British Columbia because they were either passengers on the ship or had close contact with someone infected with hantavirus on a flight.

The ship passengers include four people isolating on Vancouver Island and a couple isolating in the Grey Bruce region of Ontario. The people isolating because they may have had close contact with someone infected with the virus on a flight include a visitor to Canada isolating in Ontario’s Peel region and two travellers isolating in Alberta.

Adriana LaGrange, Alberta’s minister of primary and preventative health services, posted a message on X on Thursday afternoon reassuring Albertans that risk in that province “remains very low.”

“There were no Albertans onboard the MV Hondius cruise ship,” LaGrange wrote. 

“Unlike other jurisdictions, only two Albertans were potentially exposed while travelling on a flight. They remain healthy, symptom-free, and are isolating at home, with health officials checking in daily.”

Reimer said no one in Canada has shown any symptoms of hantavirus, which has an incubation period that can last several weeks.  

Doctors, scientists and public health officials emphasize that close, prolonged contact — such as the conditions on a cruise ship — is needed for hantavirus to spread between humans. 

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They say that because it isn’t easily transmissible under normal circumstances it is not considered a pandemic threat.

The World Health Organization said Wednesday that a total of 11 hantavirus cases linked to the cruise have been reported worldwide, including three deaths. Eight cases have been confirmed by laboratory tests. 

—With files from The Associated Press

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 14, 2026.

Canadian Press health coverage receives support through a partnership with the Canadian Medical Association. CP is solely responsible for this content.