From Global News.

Officials with the World Health Organization diffused widespread concerns that another global pandemic could unfold amid a cluster outbreak of a rare and deadly hantavirus — the Andean strain — on a Dutch cruise ship travelling from Argentina to Cape Verde.

“This is not coronavirus. This is a very different virus,” Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, the WHO’s director of epidemic and pandemic preparedness, said at a Thursday press conference.

Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus verified five cases of the virus, noting that another three are suspected among the nearly 150 passengers who were initially aboard the MV Hondius when it departed in April.

Three passengers have succumbed to hantavirus — two of whom, Ghebreyesus said, visited sites where a species of rat known to carry the deadly Andes strain dwells.

Kerkhove continued: “We know this virus. Hantavirus has been around for quite a while. There’s a lot of detail that we know… I want to be unequivocal here. This is not SARS-CoV-2. This is not the start of a COVID pandemic. This is an outbreak that we see on a ship.”

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