The wife of Canada’s first novel coronavirus patient has tested positive for the virus at a public health laboratory, the province of Ontario’s health ministry said in a release yesterday.
The patient has been in self-isolation and is being monitored, the ministry said.
“Given the fact that she has been in self-isolation, the risk to Ontarians remains low,” said Ontario’s Chief Medical Officer of Health David Williams in the release.
“From what we know, Wuhan novel coronavirus transmits through close contact — and there’s no closer contact than a husband and wife,” said Ontario’s health minister Christine Elliott in a tweet.
The first confirmed Canadian patient, a man in his 50s, had mild symptoms while on a flight to Toronto from Guangzhou, Canada’s chief health officer Theresa Tam told reporters on Sunday.
The man arrived in Toronto on January 22 from Wuhan, the epicentre of the virus outbreak, and is currently being treated in isolation in a public hospital, Ontario health officials said on Saturday.
Meanwhile, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said yesterday it had not recorded any new confirmed cases of a new coronavirus overnight since its last update of five, and said as many as 110 potential cases were under investigation.
Of the investigated cases across 26 states, 32 people had tested negative, the CDC said.
There is no evidence so far that the coronavirus is transmitted through imported goods, said Nancy Messonnier, director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, in a briefing with reporters.
US President Donald Trump yesterday offered any help China needed to control the outbreak which has also left tens of millions stranded during the Lunar New Year, the biggest Chinese holiday.
The CDC had on Thursday raised its travel alert for the coronavirus outbreak to a level three, recommending people avoid all nonessential travel to the Chinese province.
Dr Barbara Yaffe, Ontario’s Associate Chief Medical Officer of Health (right) speaks as Ontario Chief Medical Officer Dr David Williams and Dr Eileen de Villa, Medical Officer of Health for the City of Toronto, listen on, during a press briefing on the coronavirus at Queens Park in Toronto yesterday.
