26 ‘low-risk’ air passengers being contacted about hantavirus: Canada’s top doctor

TORONTO — Canada’s chief medical officer of health says 26 people across the country are being contacted by public health authorities to monitor for hantavirus symptoms, though they are deemed “low risk.”

Dr. Joss Reimer says all of the passengers 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.

She says European public health officials had deemed them to be at no risk, but Canada is taking a “precautionary approach and we have deemed them to be minimal or low risk as opposed to no risk.”

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

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

She says no one in Canada has shown any symptoms of hantavirus.

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

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