B.C. health officials say seventh case of COVID-19 confirmed
Credit to Author: Stephanie Ip| Date: Mon, 24 Feb 2020 17:20:20 +0000
B.C. health officials have confirmed the province’s seventh case of COVID-19.
Health Minister Adrian Dix and provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry said the seventh case of coronavirus was found in a man in his 40s located in the Fraser Health region. The man had been in close contact with a woman who had returned from Iran last week and who was announced as the province’s sixth case on Thursday.
Officials have since identified a number of individuals who had been in close contact with both the man and woman, including individuals who had been on board the same flight taken by the woman returning from Iran.
Those close contacts are all in isolation at home and being monitored. All are in stable condition.
Henry also said the province’s second, third and fourth case – a local who had been hosted two relatives from the Hubei province in China – are close to recovery and will be re-tested this week before being cleared.
The province’s fifth case, a woman in the Interior of B.C., is also doing well and no longer symptomatic.
Henry called it a “rapidly evolving situation” but said a lot of work had been done over the weekend to ensure close contacts of the sixth and seventh cases were identified.
“It’s important to say there is no need for anyone in the public to go in for testing unless you are contacted by public health,” said Henry.
Health officials also said COVID-19 test results no longer needed to be sent to a national testing centre for confirmation, after national authorities confirmed B.C.’s testing procedure is accurate.
Last week, Henry had said staff were surprised by a new case linked to Iran, which only recently reported it had five cases of COVID-19 and two deaths.
“That could be an indicator that there’s more widespread transmission. This is what we call an indicator or sentinel event,” Henry said during the Thursday news conference.
The first of B.C.’s six cases was a Vancouver Coastal Health-area resident who had travelled to China. He has since fully covered.
The second, third and fourth cases were a Vancouver-area woman and her two relatives, who were visiting from China. Those three individuals remain in isolation at home though Henry said the trio are close to recovery; the three individuals will be tested again this week before they are cleared.
The fifth case is a woman in her 30s who had recently returned from Shanghai, China, and who remained in isolation at home in B.C.’s Interior.
Three cases of the virus have also been confirmed in Ontario.
As of Feb. 23, the World Health Organization said there were 78,811 confirmed cases globally, with 1,017 new cases within the 24 hours prior to the report being published. The majority of those cases remain in China, where the epicentre of the outbreak is located. There are 77,042 confirmed cases and 2,445 deaths in China to date.
Outside of China, there have been 17 deaths. In Canada, there have only been nine cases to date, with only one case being transmitted outside of China. There have been no deaths due to COVID-19 in Canada.