Everyone's assessment continues to be that the risk of community spread of the virus is low, Forssmed tells TT.
The Schengen area includes 29 countries that cooperate on freedom of movement without internal border controls, including 25 of the 27 EU countries.
"International cooperation and EU cooperation are working. In that way, it was a reassuring meeting. The countries have good control of the situation," says Forssmed.
Virus-stricken ship
The Netherlands has outlined how it will handle the virus-stricken cruise ship Hondius when it arrives in Rotterdam. According to Forssmed, there is a "very good plan" for handling the crew, luggage and disinfecting the ship.
There is a rigorous plan for how these people will be placed in isolation to ensure that no further contact or spread of infection occurs from the ship, he says.
The collaboration is being carried out with the pandemic fresh in mind.
It is clear that the entire European system has truly benefited from the lessons learned from the pandemic.
No mutation
All countries are following the procedures for close contact with the hantavirus set by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), based in Solna, according to Forssmed. The procedures state that anyone who has come into contact with the virus should be isolated for 42 days from the last contact.
Two people in Sweden – one who was on board the ship, one who had been close to an infected passenger on a flight – are being kept in isolation according to those procedures, with daily contact with the regional infectious disease control unit.
Earlier on Tuesday, the ECDC announced that "there are no indications" that this is a mutation of the Andes virus, the variant of hantavirus that is transmitted between humans.
This indicates that there is only a single transmission from an infected animal to a human, says Andreas Hoefer at the ECDC, according to AFP.
