Two Singaporean residents who were passengers on the MV Hondius cruise ship have tested negative for hantavirus, a government health agency has said.
The two individuals – a 67-year-old Singaporean man and a 65-year-old permanent resident – had returned to Singapore from St Helena, where they had boarded the same flight as someone who contracted and later died from the virus on 25 April.
Testing on multiple samples collected from the two men confirmed that hantavirus was not detected, Singapore’s Communicable Diseases Agency said.
That included the Andes strain of hantavirus, which is thought to have caused this specific outbreak.
As a precaution, the men will be quarantined for 30 days from the date of last exposure and will undergo further testing before being released.
“The risk to the general public in Singapore remains low,” the agency said, adding it was closely monitoring the situation.
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