Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment he has made of the level of human-to-human transmission of hantavirus.

Most hantaviruses do not spread between humans, although person-to-person transmission has happened with the Andes virus strain in rare cases. The risk from the recent outbreak remains very low for members of the general public.

The United Kingdom’s response to this complex incident is being led by the UK Health Security Agency working closely with the World Health Organization, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, the Department of Health and Social Care, the Home Office, the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government, the Ministry of Defence, the UK Devolved Governments and international partners. Collectively, they are doing everything possible to protect the safety and well-being of British nationals, and to provide reassurance to UK citizens.