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Canadian national health agency confirms 1 positive hantavirus test

VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) — Canada’s national health agency Sunday confirmed that one of four Canadians who returned home from a cruise ship hit with a hantavirus outbreak has tested positive for the virus.

The Public Health Agency of Canada confirmed the positive test a day after the public health officer for the province of British Columbia said the person had received a “presumptive positive” but further testing would be conducted at the National Microbiology Lab in Winnipeg.

“One individual’s sample was confirmed positive for hantavirus,” the national agency said in a statement.

A second individual who was a traveling partner of the confirmed case was confirmed negative, the statement said. Both people, a couple in their 70s from the Yukon, are in a hospital in Victoria.

The four Canadian cruise passengers returned to British Columbia last Sunday. Besides the couple, there was a person in their 70s from Vancouver Island and a British Columbia person in their 50s who lives abroad.

All are in isolation.

Three people have died since the hantavirus outbreak began on the cruise ship MV Hondius. The Canadian patient is the 10th person from the ship to test positive.

Among the three who died are a Dutch couple who health officials believe were the first exposed to the virus while visiting South America.

The Canadian public health agency said it is taking a precautionary approach to ensure citizens are protected.

“The overall risk to the general population in Canada from the Andes hantavirus outbreak linked to the MV Hondius cruise ship remains low at this time,” the statement said. “All confirmed cases to date have been passengers or crew on the MV Hondius cruise ship.”

The agency said it provided the information about the positive case to the World Health Organization and will share information to support the ongoing global investigation of the outbreak.

Iran attacks Bahrain and Kuwait following US strikes, threatens to end talks to end the war

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard launched drone and missile attacks Sunday targeting Bahrain and Kuwait in response to U.S. airstrikes that hit the Islamic Republic, and threatened a “complete halt” could come to negotiations to end the war if Washington continues its attacks. Efforts to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf that once carried a fifth of the world's oil and natural gas, without Iran's direct oversight sparked the crossfire now gripping the region. A multinational maritime body overseen by the U.S. Navy said Saturday that it would expand a route near Oman in the Strait of Hormuz to allow for both inbound and outbound traffic — setting up a new flashpoint with Tehran. Iran insists it alone must govern the strait after the war, upending decades of the world considering that the strait was international waters free for all, despite its sitting in Iran and Oman's territorial waters. Tehran has twice attacked vessels going through the Oman route, backed by a United Nations agency, in recent days. Early Sunday, the U.S. military’s Central Command said it struck Iranian military “surveillance infrastructure, communication systems, air defense sites, drone storage facilities and minelayer capabilities” following an attack on a ship at sea early Saturday morning. That ship, the Panamanian-flagged tanker Kiku, carried crude oil for the state-run energy company of Qatar, a key negotiator between Iran and the United States.
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