Hantai: A passenger of the MV Hondius is quarantined in a hospital in Taiwan

A New Zealand man who had been staying on the MV Hondius cruise ship, on which an outbreak of hantavirus was detected, is quarantined in a hospital in Taiwan, the island’s health authorities said today.

The person has been diagnosed negative for hantavirus and has no symptoms, according to the same sources. This arrived in Taiwan on May 7 after disembarking from the cruise ship on April 24 on the British island of St Helena, in the South Atlantic.

Taiwan’s Centers for Disease Control (CDC) was informed Wednesday by New Zealand authorities that the person was in Taiwan, CDC spokeswoman Cheng Su-hui told AFP.

The man was admitted to hospital the same day and will remain there until June 6, clarified Cheng, who declined to give any information on his identity.

“At present, we estimate that the probability that he has contracted the disease is relatively low,” Cheng noted. “His last contact with other passengers was on April 25, about 20 days ago.”

The hantavirus has an incubation period of up to 42 days.

CDC director-general Lo Yi-chun told reporters that the New Zealand citizen did not return to his country after leaving the cruise ship, but did not provide information on the route he took to get to Taiwan.

A spokesman for the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT) said its administration “provided consular assistance to a person with dual citizenship” in Taiwan. “This individual is residing outside New Zealand and requested MFAT’s assistance on Wednesday 13 May,” the ministry clarified in a statement.

Health authorities have repeatedly stressed that the risk of a public outbreak linked to the Andean strain of the Andean strain of Chantavirus – which is the only one known to be transmitted from human to human – is low.

A globally, the death toll stands at three.

The MV Hondius had departed Argentina on April 1 for a voyage to the Atlantic Ocean.

There is no vaccine or specific treatment against hantavirus, but health authorities assert that the risk is low and reject any comparison with the COVID-19 pandemic.