Illustration of a hantavirus testing concept with laboratory tubes containing cotton swabs and HANTAVIRUS labels alongside rat silhouettes in the background evoking rodent-borne transmission, photographed in Paris, France, on 4 May 2026.
JOHANNESBURG - The National Department of Health has confirmed that authorities are awaiting the results of one person in the Western Cape who was linked to the hantavirus outbreak.
According to department spokesperson Foster Mohale, the individual is part of a group of four people who were being monitored by health officials.
“Four of the passengers from the Airlink flight from St Helena reside in the Western Cape. Three of them did not experience symptoms. Only one did, and he has since been tested. Results are pending,” Mohale said.
During a media briefing on Thursday, the World Health Organization (WHO) said the outbreak on a Dutch-flagged cruise ship, the MV Hondius, cannot be compared to the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic.
READ | 'Hantavirus is not Covid-19' : WHO amid concerns over new pandemic scare
The organisation dismissed speculation that the outbreak could signal the start of another pandemic.
“This is not the coronavirus. It is a different virus, and we know this virus. Hantavirus has been around for a while. It is not a COVID-19 pandemic; it is an outbreak that we are seeing on the ship.
“This is not the same situation we were in six years ago,” the WHO said.
So far, three deaths have been confirmed.