WINDOW ROCK, Ariz. (AP) The Navajo Nation on Tuesday reported finding no new COVID-19 related deaths for the 10th consecutive day. The tribe reported nine new confirmed coronavirus cases, but no additional deaths on the vast reservation that covers parts of Arizona, New Mexico and Utah. The latest numbers bring the Navajo Nation’s pandemic case total to 30,380 with the death toll remaining at 1,262.
April 20, 2021 GMT
WINDOW ROCK, Ariz. (AP) Health officials on Tuesday reported the Navajo Nation’s first case this year of Hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, a rare but potentially fatal disease spread by infected rodent droppings.
The case was confirmed in McKinley County in northwestern New Mexico but it wasn’t known how the person contracted Hantavirus, the tribal Department of Health said. Hantavirus typically is reported in spring and summer, often due to exposures that occur when people are near mouse droppings in homes, sheds or poorly ventilated areas.
Recommended precautions to limit the spread of Hantavirus include ventilating and cleaning areas where they might be mouse droppings, according to a department statement.