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Reimer also touched on how people can reduce their risk of contracting hantavirus.

She said the main thing people should do is stay away from rodents, and safely disinfect areas contaminated by rodents. 

Reimer said the cruise ship is expected to arrive in the Canary Islands on May 9 or 10. She said a "team of experts" is on board the ship right now ensuring the safety and health of passengers on board. 

There is also a public health officer en route to the Spanish islands to monitor the process when Canadians disembark and ensure proper protocols are followed.

The news conference begins with an update from  Dr. Joss Reimer, Canada's chief public health officer.

She says public health officials, in collaboration with other government agencies, have been working with international partners, including the U.S., Spain and the Netherlands, to monitor the outbreak aboard the MV Hondius.

She says she recognizes Canadians may be concerned or nervous about the outbreak, especially given how recent the COVID-19 pandemic was, and she wants to be transparent about what PHAC knows and doesn't know. 

Reimer said at this time, public health officials believe the overall risk to the general population is low, and "onward spread" within Canada is not expected. 

At 3 p.m. ET, officials from the Public Health Agency, Global Affairs Canada and the Canada Border Services Agency are expected to provide an update on the hantavirus situation. 

We are waiting for that news conference to begin.

While there is some ongoing research into this, don't hold your breath, says Weese, the infectious disease veterinarian.

He says while it sounds like there are some "promising vaccines in development," there's nothing that would be available anytime soon to help in this outbreak. 

Because hantavirus is quite rare, vaccine development hasn't been a high priority. 

"Vaccines take a while to get to the point where you are going to put them into people from a preventative standpoint," he said. 

"This [outbreak] may just give a little bit of a push to reinforce why this might be valuable." 

We still don't know where and how the outbreak started. 

Investigators in Argentina say they believe the Dutch couple who died might have first caught the virus while birdwatching in the southern city of Ushuaia. 

Officials believe the couple then boarded the cruise ship in Argentina on April 1. But none of this has been confirmed just yet. 

Argentina's Health Ministry told The Associated Press that it is sending a team to Ushuaia to investigate in the coming days. 

Hantavirus contact tracing: What’s next for cruise passengers?

Public health officials across multiple countries are in the process of tracing those who may have come into contact with passengers on board the MV Hondius who have contracted the Andes strain of hantavirus. Further tracing is expected to ramp up with the ship set to arrive in the Canary Islands on May 10.

It's unclear how many of the approximately 32 MV Hondius passengers and one crew member who left the vessel when it docked at the South Atlantic island of St. Helena on April 24 could have been exposed to the virus, but health officials will need to track them down and, if they are infected, anyone else they may have come in contact with. 

Contact tracing is something that much of the global public became familiar with at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. But contact tracing in this situation is different according to 

Dr. Anna Banerji, an infectious diseases and tropical diseases specialist at the University of Toronto's Dalla Lana school of public health.

COVID-19 is highly infectious and spread through sharing the same air as infected individuals. 

"This is nothing like COVID," Banerji said.

Contact tracing in this situation, Banerji said, may be similar to outbreaks of diseases like tuberculosis and measles, which are also spread by prolonged and close contact.

"With measles," she said, "they looked at who got sick, who is in their immediate family, who's at risk [and] who's not vaccinated."

There is no vaccine or antiviral treatment for hantavirus, but Banerji said contact tracing would help determine who may need to isolate as a result of potential exposure to the virus.

The three people transferred from the MV Hondius to the Netherlands on Wednesday remain under medical care, according to a news release today from the ship's operator, Oceanwide Expeditions. 

"No symptomatic individuals are present on board," the release said. "The situation on board MV Hondius remains calm, and guests and crew continue to follow procedures, now under the guidance of the medical team." 

The ship is slated to arrive at the port of Granadilla, Tenerife, on the Canary Islands early on Sunday, but that is subject to change, Oceanwide said. 

Quarantine, screening and onward travel preparations are underway for the arrival of the ship's passengers and crew, led by the organizations from a number of countries, including the WHO, the Dutch National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) and Dutch authorities, in co-operation with Spanish government authorities, according to the release.

Lana G. Asked this question via email.

When I asked Weese, he broke it down into concern from health officials and concern from the public. 

Health experts, he said, aren't worried that this will spread — the risk to the broader public continues to be very low. 

But Weese said that there's always concern about "diseases that have severe impacts." And when you look at this strain of hantavirus having an up to 50 per cent mortality rate, he said it's worth paying attention to. 

Most importantly, experts want to make sure that there are no unusual changes to the virus. 

"We just want to be proactive," said Weese. "The fact that there's a lot of investigation being done doesn't mean that there's a problem, it means we're looking out to see if there's a problem." 

As for the concerns coming from the public, Weese said it's expected given that we just went through a pandemic. But he said people should feel reassured by the WHO, which has been clear that this is a known virus. 

I just spoke with Dr. Scott Weese, an infectious disease veterinarian at the University of Guelph in Ontario. 

He says there are two main ways officials might screen the Canadians who eventually disembark the cruise ship in Spain on Sunday. 

The first is quite simple: look for symptoms. 

"If they're sick, then obviously of concern," said Weese. But he added that getting sick while travelling is quite common.

At this time, cruise ship operator Oceanwide Expeditions continues to say no one on board has hantavirus symptoms. 

The only way to confirm hantavirus would be through a PCR (polymerase chain reaction) test, which would provide pretty quick results, says Weese. 

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