B.C. provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry provides the latest update about the hantavirus during a news conference in the press theatre at the legislature in Victoria, B.C., on Monday May 11, 2026. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chad Hipolito)

Canadian in isolation tests ‘presumptive positive’ for hantavirus

By The Canadian Press May 16, 2026 | 1:27 PM

British Columbia’s provincial health officer says one of the four Canadians isolating in the province who had been on board a cruise ship where there was a hantavirus outbreak has received a “presumptive positive” test.

Dr. Bonnie Henry says the person, who is from the Yukon, developed “mild symptoms” on Thursday including a fever and a headache and that samples have been sent to a national microbiology lab in Winnipeg for the tests to be confirmed.

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Henry says protocols were followed and that three of the four people who were isolating in B.C. have been brought to hospitals in Victoria and the fourth person remains isolating at home.

The government has previously said the four people are a couple in their 70s from the Yukon, a person in their 70s from Vancouver Island, and a person from B.C. in their 50s who lives abroad.

Henry says the second Yukoner was also tested but those tests came back negative.

The four people from the MV Hondius who were flown to Victoria last week were isolating on Vancouver Island for a minimum of 21 days.