Muscat: Venezuelan authorities said today that three people died from hantavirus, but stressed there was no evidence of person-to-person transmission in the South American country, which has rarely recorded human cases of the rodent-borne disease.

According to Oman News Agency, the Health Ministry reported that hantavirus was also suspected in the deaths of two health workers in Barinas state, adding that those cases remain under investigation and have not been linked to the three deaths recorded in Anzo¡tegui state, some 655 kilometers away.

Both states were spared the two successive earthquakes that struck northern Venezuela earlier this month.

The ministry described the deaths in Anzo¡tegui and Barinas as separate incidents that "do not pose a risk to the general public," but said health workers would be deployed to the affected states "to ensure the health security of all Venezuelans," without providing further details.