{"id":662938,"date":"2026-05-11T20:15:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-11T20:15:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/662938\/"},"modified":"2026-05-11T20:15:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-11T20:15:12","slug":"ontario-not-currently-testing-asymptomatic-people-isolating-over-hantavirus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/662938\/","title":{"rendered":"Ontario not currently testing asymptomatic people isolating over hantavirus"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Three people self-isolating in Ontario over <a href=\"https:\/\/globalnews.ca\/tag\/hantavirus\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">hantavirus<\/a> are not being tested, the health minister says, over concerns the screening won\u2019t yield any results.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/70c8fc80.png\" alt=\"\" style=\"position:absolute;width:1px;height:1px\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer-when-downgrade\"\/><\/p>\n<p>An Ontario couple who disembarked from the remote South Atlantic island of St. Helena are isolating in Grey Bruce, while a third who may have been exposed on a flight is in Peel Region.<\/p>\n<p>Four other Canadians are still on board the MV Hondius cruise ship that has seen reports of multiple cases. This includes three deaths from the outbreak of the rodent-borne Andes virus, the only hantavirus known to be capable of limited transmission between humans.<\/p>\n<p>The ship docked in Tenerife, Spain, last week, and some Canadian passengers wore protective gear as they climbed the stairs of a plane bound for the Saguenay-Bagotville Airport, roughly two hours outside of Quebec City.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" width=\"170\" height=\"225\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/healthiq.jpg\" alt=\"Receive the latest medical news and health information delivered to you every Sunday.\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\tGet weekly health news<\/p>\n<p>Receive the latest medical news and health information delivered to you every Sunday.<\/p>\n<p>Ontario Health Minister Sylvia Jones said Monday the three people associated with the virus in the province continue to do well.<\/p>\n<p>Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe couple in Grey Bruce are still self-isolating, they continue to be asymptomatic and obviously the local public health unit is monitoring closely,\u201d she told reporters at an unrelated event.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe do have a third individual in the Peel Region who is also isolating and being monitored by the local public health unit.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Pressed on the issue of testing, Jones said she had been informed it may not be the best course of action.<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\tMore on Health<br \/>\n\t\t\tMore videos\n\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\u201cInitial conversations and feedback, knowledge from Dr. Kieran Moore suggests that testing on asymptomatic [individuals] may not have the appropriate results,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt may not be the best way to monitor.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Public Health Ontario\u2019s guidelines for hantavirus recommend that N-95 masks be worn.<\/p>\n<p>Moore previously said there was a national teleconference for public health leaders yesterday to co-ordinate efforts between federal, provincial and territories.<\/p>\n<p>Despite the low risk of the virus spreading widely, he acknowledges that hearing words like \u201ccontact tracing\u201d for the first time since the pandemic can be anxiety-provoking.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 With files from The Canadian Press<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t&amp;copy 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Three people self-isolating in Ontario over hantavirus are not being tested, the health minister says, over concerns the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":662939,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[49,48,241672,84,94442,13404],"class_list":["post-662938","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-hantavirus","tag-health","tag-ontario-health-care","tag-ontario-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/662938","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=662938"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/662938\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/662939"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=662938"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=662938"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=662938"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}