- B.C. has its first presumptively confirmed case of coronavirus
- A Toronto man is first Canadian to contract the novel coronavirus and his wife is presumed to be the second
- Health officials in Ontario are investigating 11 other people suspected, but not confirmed, to have the virus.
- 106 people in China have died — most in and around Wuhan — from the novel coronavirus and the total number of confirmed cases has nearly doubled since Monday, from 2,835 to 4,515.
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A third case of a new coronavirus that’s behind deaths in China has been confirmed in Canada by health officials in British Columbia, who say a man in his 40s tested presumptively positive after a business trip to the Chinese city of Wuhan.
Dr. Bonnie Henry, provincial health officer, said the man who lives in the Vancouver area returned last week and had symptoms about 24 hours later, when he voluntarily isolated himself at his home and called a clinic.
The man is doing well at home and no members of his family have shown any symptoms as they are being monitored by health officials, Henry added.
A second test will be done at the National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg and results are expected in the next two days, Henry told a news conference Tuesday.
“Given the history of travel and the contact that this person had in Wuhan city, and they were showing symptoms, we are confident that this is truly a case of this novel coronavirus,” she said.
The patient spent most of his time in the port city of Guangzhou and visited Wuhan, the city at the centre of an outbreak in that country, where millions of people have been quarantined and the number of cases has increased to almost 6,000 across China.
Chinese authorities report that more than 100 people have died there of the novel virus that is believed to have originated at a market in Wuhan, where meat was sold alongside live animals.
Meanwhile, parents north of Toronto are circulating a petition online urging schools to ask some students to stay home for 17 days of “self-quarantine.”
“The school should keep tracking status of the students who recently travelled to China (not just Wuhan, any city of China),” the petition reads. “We ask that the school board send out a communication to all parents requesting students who or whose families have recently returned from China, to stay at home and keep isolated for a minimum of 17 days for the purpose of self-quarantine.”
The CDC states that symptoms from the coronavirus “may appear in as few as (two) days or as long as 14 after exposure.”
“Individuals who make assumptions, even with positive intentions of safety, about the risk of others, request or demand quarantine can be seen as demonstrating bias and racism,” the board chair and director of education of York Region District School Board wrote.
They said that while the virus is believed to have originated in the central Chinese city of Wuhan, it’s important that it not be seen as a “Chinese virus.”
“At times such as this, we must come together as Canadians and avoid any hint of xenophobia, which in this case can victimize our East Asian Chinese community,” the letter said.
“Situations such as these can regrettably give rise to discrimination based on perceptions, stereotypes and hate.”
A spokesperson for the school board said the letter was issued in response to “misinformation” circulating in the community, particularly on social media.
So far, more than 9,000 people have signed the petition.
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