US President Donald Trump on Thursday said he had been briefed on the concerning cruise ship-outbreak of hantavirus, and added that he hoped it was very much under control.
Trump’s comments came during an impromptu visit to the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool in Washington, DC, where he has ordered a renovation project.
“It’s very much, we hope, under control,” Trump told reporters Thursday. “It was the ship, and I think we’re going to make a full report about it tomorrow. We have a lot of people. It’s a lot of great people are studying it. It should be fine,” he said.
An outbreak of the rare hantavirus emerged over weeks on a Duth-flagged cruise ship – MV Hondius – as it sailed across the Atlantic Ocean.
At least three passengers have died so far and several others have fallen unwell, necessitating evacuation from the ship. Health authorities have been trying to trace passengers who left the ship previously and people who might have had contact with them.
More than 140 passengers and crew members are still aboard the ship which is headed for Spain’s Canary Islands.
At least five Americans from the hantavirus-affected ship are back home and being monitored for the virus, Fox News reported.
Hantavirus is a rodent-borne infection that, in rare cases, can be transmitted from person to person, though the World Health Organization says the risk to the wider public is low because the virus can’t easily be passed between people.
