Concerns about worldwide public health are being raised by the continued hantavirus outbreak. People frequently wonder if it will spread like COVID-19. Will there be a lockdown? Do people have to wear masks? Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, Director of Epidemic and Pandemic Management, explained during a press conference on Thursday night that "this is not covid, nor influenza, it spreads very differently."
"At this time, neither the crew nor the passengers are experiencing any symptoms. Human-to-human transmission mostly happened between intimate contacts during previous Andes virus outbreaks, she continued.
"We had a similar situation in Argentina in 2018–2019, where a symptomatic individual attended a social gathering that led to many people getting infected," stated Dr. Abdirahman Mahamud, Director of the WHO Emergencies Health Program's Alert and Response Coordination Department.

We currently have a cluster in close proximity to one another in a similar circumstance.We can stop this cycle of infection if we adhere to public health precautions, such as contact tracing and isolation. An extensive pandemic is not necessary. Dr. Mahamud continued, "It has occurred in a particular confined setting where people are interacting in prolonged close contact."
Is a pandemic possible due to Hantavirus?We do not expect a significant epidemic, and it is comparable to the Agrentia outbreak. We can break the chain of transmission using public health measures, and this will be a contained outbreak," Dr.
Additionally, Dr. Van Kerkhove emphasised, "This is not coronavirus. This virus, which has been around for a while, is pretty distinct."Six years ago, we were in a different circumstance. It doesn't spread in the same manner," she continued.
The primary distinction between Covid-19 and hantavirus transmission
The primary distinction between Covid-19 and hantavirus is that the latter is a highly contagious respiratory virus that spreads from person to person, while the former is mostly a zoonotic illness spread from rodents to people. Although both can result in serious respiratory problems, hantavirus is much more deadly in individual cases but is much less likely to start a pandemic due to its poor interpersonal transmission.

Covid-19 has the potential to spread quickly and become a pandemic. It can infect big groups of people in a single room and remains in the air. However, the hantavirus can only spread from person to person through sustained intimate contact. Outbreaks of the hantavirus are often confined.
On the cruise liner, human transmission
The main way that the hantavirus spreads is by contact with the urine, droppings, or saliva of infected rodents. Transmission from person to person is incredibly uncommon. Transmission still needs extremely close, intimate contact, even though the Andes strain—the only kind known to spread between humans—was involved in a recent outbreak on the cruise liner.
WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus stated during the media conference, "More cases may be reported given the Andes virus's incubation period, which can be up to six weeks."