Canada’s chief public health officer, Joss Reimer, said 26 people across the country are being contacted by public health authorities to monitor for hantavirus symptoms after possible exposure, although officials currently consider the risk to be low, News.Az reports, citing Global News.

Reimer said all of the individuals had shared flights with a confirmed hantavirus case, but they are not regarded as close contacts because of where they were seated on the aircraft.

She added that European public health authorities had assessed the passengers as being at no risk. However, Canada has opted for what she described as a “precautionary approach,” classifying the individuals as facing minimal or low risk rather than no risk at all.

Reimer did not disclose the country from which the flight originated.

The Public Health Agency of Canada is not recommending that the 26 low-risk individuals isolate, although Reimer noted that provincial and territorial health authorities could decide otherwise as they carry out more detailed risk assessments.

At present, nine people in Canada — located in Ontario, Alberta, and British Columbia — have been categorized as high-risk exposure cases and instructed to self-isolate.

Public health officials in Ontario said they are not testing the three passengers currently isolating in the province, explaining that screening would not produce meaningful results at this stage.

In British Columbia, four passengers are also self-isolating, with the province’s top doctor warning that they are currently in a “very critical phase of the incubation period.”

Health officials in Alberta said Tuesday that the province’s two affected travelers are self-isolating at home.

News.Az 

By Nijat Babayev