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Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi.
Health Minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi has called for calm, as details around hantavirus cases in the country emerge. A 70-year-old male died after falling ill en-route to St Helena Island, and his 69-year-old spouse later collapsed at OR Tambo International Airport, and later died.
The two were passengers on an international cruise ship traveling from southern Argentina to the Canary Islands via Cape Verde.
Another passenger had already died earlier in the cruise ship, bringing the death toll to three.
Several passengers fell ill with severe respiratory symptoms while the vessel passed South African waters.
One patient is admitted at a Kempton Park hospital.
Motsoaledi says an outbreak of the virus has not been declared.
“We don’t want people to start panicking, because nobody has said we’ve got a pandemic or an outbreak. We just at the moment have two people who have died. The second one is still sick awaiting result. We cannot glean [say] that there’s an outbreak of anything yet. So, while we want people to be on the lookout, we don’t want them to panic unnecessarily,” adds Motsoaledi.
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