President Donald Trump said he hoped the deadly hantavirus outbreak on a cruise ship was under control and indicated the administration would report on the incident.
“We hope it’s very much under control,” Trump told reporters Thursday. “It was the ship, and I think we’ll do a full report on it tomorrow. We’ve got a lot of people. A lot of great people are studying it. It should be fine.”
The president’s comments came during an impromptu visit to the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool in Washington, DC, where he commissioned a renovation project.
“You will be told everything,” Trump said.
Asked if Americans should be worried about the virus spreading, Trump said, “I hope not,” adding that “we’re doing the best we can.”
A cluster of hantavirus infections linked to a cruise ship in the Atlantic Ocean has left three dead and several others seriously ill. The incident prompted an alert from the World Health Organization and raised questions about how a rare rodent-borne disease could spread in this environment.
Authorities are still investigating how the virus spread aboard the ship, which was carrying about 150 passengers. The ship is now heading to the Spanish Canary Islands.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a statement that it is “closely monitoring the situation with American passengers aboard” the cruise ship and that the State Department is leading a coordinated response, including discussions with international health authorities.
The incident also comes as the Trump administration faces scrutiny from critics over cuts to public health programs that some advocates say have left programs to fight infectious diseases inadequate.
This article was generated from an automated news agency source without text modification.
