Risk of coronavirus low in B.C. as first case emerges in Toronto: officials

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VANCOUVER - British Columbia health officials are assuring the public that the risk of contracting the coronavirus that originated in Wuhan, China, remains low.

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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 25/01/2020 (2444 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

VANCOUVER – British Columbia health officials are assuring the public that the risk of contracting the coronavirus that originated in Wuhan, China, remains low.

Health Minister Adrian Dix and Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry released a joint statement on Saturday in the wake of the first presumptive positive case of the virus in Canada.

Health officials in Ontario confirmed Saturday afternoon that a man in his 50s who had travelled to Wuhan was taken to Toronto’s Sunnybrook Hospital and is now in stable condition in a negative pressure room.

Officials in Toronto say the case was confirmed by a test there, but the illness would be officially confirmed once the National Collaborating Centre for Infectious Diseases in Winnipeg completes its own testing.

Dix and Henry say there have been no confirmed cases of the virus in B.C. and health officials in the province are meeting regularly with counterparts across Canada to make sure they are prepared if cases arise.

The say the BC Centre for Disease Control has developed a diagnostic test for the new coronavirus and health-care workers have been asked to record the travel history for anyone reporting respiratory symptoms.

Authorities around the world have confirmed more than 1,200 coronavirus cases so far, including two in the United States.

The Canadian government has stepped up measures at major airports in Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal, where visitors are now being asked about any travel to Wuhan in the past two weeks.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 25, 2020.

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Chief Public Health Officer of Canada Theresa Tam participates in a press conference following the announcement by the Government of Ontario of the first presumptive confirmed case of a novel coronavirus in Canada, in Ottawa, on Sunday, Jan. 26, 2020. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang
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Dr. David Williams, centre, Chief Medical Officer of Health, is joined by Andy Smith, President and CEO of Sunnybrook Health Sciences, left to right, Dr. Eileen de Villa, Medical Officer of Health for the City of Toronto, Dr. Barbara Yaffe, Associate Chief Medical Officer of Health, Christine Elliott, Minister of Health, and Dr. Peter Donnelly, President and Chief Executive Officer of Public Health Ontario, as they attend a news conference in Toronto on Saturday, January 25, 2020, as officials announce that Canada's first presumptive positive case of the Coronavirus is being treated at Toronto's Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, after arriving on a flight from China. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young

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