Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu announced on Monday evening on social media platform X that “for all close contacts, without exception”, there would be “enhanced hospital quarantine".
Lecornu's announcement further tightens the rules previously set out in a decree published overnight from Sunday to Monday in France's official newspaper, Journal Officiel.
Until now, close contacts had been instructed to report themselves “without delay” and comply with a “home quarantine measure pending an assessment of their risk of infection.”
On Monday morning, the French Health Minister reported a total of 22 identified close contacts. These include the eight passengers on the flight from Saint Helena to Johannesburg on April 25th, and 14 others on the Johannesburg-Amsterdam flight on the same day.
Among the five French passengers repatriated on Sunday and placed in isolation at the Bichat Hospital in Paris, the condition of one woman deteriorated overnight from Sunday to Monday, as her “tests came back positive,” said Health Minister Stéphanie Rist to French media France Inter.
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The four other passengers have “continued to test negative” and are undergoing “enhanced isolation measures in hospital”, added Lecornu.
Three people who had been aboard the Hondius have died. The World Health Organisation has confirmed hantavirus infection in two of these cases, while the third is considered a probable case. According to AFP, there have also been six confirmed infections and two additional probable cases reported.
The strain identified on the MV Hondius, the Andes hantavirus, is a rare variant capable of human-to-human transmission, with an incubation period that can extend up to six weeks. Specialists note that it can lead to acute respiratory syndrome, and its mortality rate may exceed 40 percent.
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