Two Singapore residents, who were being monitored for hantavirus, have been released from quarantine after testing negative for the disease.
They completed their quarantine on Saturday, the Communicable Diseases Agency (CDA) said yesterday.
“Both of them are well and have tested negative for hantavirus, including the Andes virus, before release from quarantine,” the agency added.
This marks the end of the residents’ monitoring period, which is 42 days from their last exposure to the virus. Most hantavirus cases are expected to show signs of infection within this window.
The 67-year-old Singaporean and 65-year-old Singapore permanent resident, both men, were last exposed to the virus on April 25 during a flight they shared with a confirmed hantavirus case.
They had also been on the MV Hondius cruise ship when it left the Argentinian port of Ushuaia on April 1, and disembarked at the remote British island of St Helena on April 24.
The next day, they took a flight from St Helena to Johannesburg, South Africa.
They returned to Singapore separately on May 2 and May 6.
They were isolated at the National Centre for Infectious Diseases after their return.
On the last 12 days of their quarantine, from May 25 to June 6, they were allowed to transition to home quarantine if they chose to do so.
The World Health Organization has recorded 13 confirmed cases linked to the outbreak, including three deaths, as at May 27.
“For the general public, including people not exposed on board the ship or through close contact with a confirmed case, the overall probability of infection remains low,” the UN agency said in a notice on May 28. — The Straits Times/ANN
