The “Today” anchor announced her pregnancy on Tuesday and said she won’t travel to Rio for NBC’s coverage of the Olympics because of concerns about Zika virus.
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Out of all the nations that the Zika virus has affected, Brazil has been hit hardest with nearly 1,500 cases of brain-damaged babies linked to the virus.
World Health Organization chief Margaret Chan has asked a panel of experts to consider whether the Olympics should be held as scheduled in Brazil, the country hardest hit since Zika began spreading in South America previous year.
The World Health Organization now has a travel advisory for pregnant women coming to Brazil due to the outbreak, but an emergency panel will meet next week to review the body’s travel guidance for the Games.
Writing in the Standard Issue magazine, Rutherford’s partner, Susie Verrill, confirmed Zika had caused “no end of concern” to the couple, who already have one child, Milo.
Today show host Savannah Guthrie is pregnant! “From the middle of last year to April of this year, we organized 43 test competitions involving 7,000 athletes, many of whom will take part in the Olympic Games, and we had no cases of the Zika virus or Dengue fever during these test competitions”, he stressed.
He also said that historically during the months of August and September, Rio is cooler and dryer than the summer and rainy seasons that precede it, lessening the number of mosquitoes that can transmit Dengue and Zika.
The spokesman of the Rio Games’ organizing committee played down Tuesday’s searches, saying, “We have nothing to hide about the construction in Deodoro or in anywhere else around Rio”.
Organizers add there have been no cases of zika among the 17,000 athletes, volunteers and staff during recent events. New research attempting to calculate the risk of the Zika virus at the Brazil-hosted Olympics may reassure organizers and numerous more than 500,000 athletes and fans expected to travel to the country at the epicenter of the epidemic.
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“I’m not going to be able to go to Rio …” The company advises anyone concerned about the virus to check with their own doctors, and said no one will be required to travel if they believe their health would be at risk.
