San Mateo supervisor urges CDC to step up protections amid hantavirus outbreak

(KRON)– San Mateo County Supervisor David Canepa is asking the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to step up protections at ports and Airports across the country, including San Francisco International Airport (SFO), after the recent hantavirus outbreak.

The outbreak began aboard a cruise ship in May 2026.

The ship outbreak has reached 12 cases, nine of which have been confirmed. So far, three people have died.

In California, five people, including one Santa Clara County resident, are being monitored for possible exposure. Another Bay Area resident is being monitored separately in Nebraska.

In the U.S., the CDC is monitoring 41 people for Hantavirus. That includes an additional 16 who were not aboard the cruise ship where the outbreak began, but were exposed on an April flight from Johannesburg with a woman who was infected on the ship and later died.

Canepa is fighting for concrete policies that would protect Californians, specifically calling out the CDC to create a clear process when outbreaks, similar to the recent hantavirus outbreak, begin.

Along with the CDC, the World Health Organization is emphasizing that the overall risk to the public remains low. So far, there’s been no evidence of ongoing transmission.