Toronto public health officials are tracking down almost 30 passengers who sat within a two-metre radius of a man who had coronavirus symptoms while travelling by plane to Toronto.
“It’s just a little under 30,” said Dr. Eileen de Villa, Toronto’s medical officer of health, when asked by the Star for the number of passengers her office is contacting. She added that some of those passengers are likely somewhere outside of the city.
The passengers are being contacted by phone, informed that they may have been exposed to the coronavirus, told of the health symptoms to look for, and to seek medical treatment if necessary, de Villa said in a phone interview.
The 50-year-old man presumed to be infected with the coronavirus experienced dry coughing and muscle aches while on the flight from China to Pearson airport, she said. News that he had symptoms of the illness while travelling to Toronto was revealed earlier Sunday by Canada’s chief public health officer.
“Based on the latest information, the patient had symptoms on the plane,” Dr. Theresa Tam told an Ottawa news conference, which included federal Health Minister Patty Hajdu.
The man arrived Wednesday on China Southern Airlines flight CZ311. He flew from Wuhan, the epicentre of the coronavirus outbreak, to Guangzhou and from there directly to Toronto.
Protocols implemented at international airports in Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal instruct passengers to inform border officials if they are experience flu-like symptoms, including fever, coughing and shortness of breath. But Dr. Rita Shahin, Toronto’s associate medical officer of health, told the Star the infected man arrived in Toronto the day before those protocols were implemented at Pearson.
“Screening was not yet in place when that flight came in,” Shahin said. “Screening started the following day.”
YOU MIGHT BE INTERESTED IN…
Asked why the screening wasn’t in place earlier at the airport, Shahin said that’s a question best answered by federal authorities. But neither Tam or Hajdu seemed to realize protocols weren’t in place when they held their news conference Sunday morning.
Tam told reporters that airport protocols were followed when the man landed. She explained that arrival screens instruct passengers to inform border service officers if they’re sick after travelling to coronavirus affected areas. Health screening questions are also asked when using electronic customs kiosks at the three airports.
A passenger who reports symptoms after travelling to an infected area is quarantined and medically assessed, Tam said, adding she did not currently see the need for more extreme airport protocols.
“The system is working,” she said, referring to the patient’s example. “The person obviously got the information that they needed to enter the health system in a safe and responsible manner.”
But asked repeatedly if the man had reported to Pearson airport authorities that he was experiencing symptoms, Tam suggested she didn’t know, noting the information about symptoms on the plane had been newly received Sunday morning after an interview with the patient.
“This patient may have had some mild symptoms, certainly not something that would have been particularly obvious,” Tam said, adding her agency had received no report about the patient when he came through Pearson airport.
Toronto Public Health now says the protocols weren’t in place, so the patient likely didn’t know he had to tell border officials about his symptoms, or that he had been to Wuhan.
Tam said passengers who weren’t within the two-metre radius with the patient on the plane “should not be overly concerned.”
YOU MIGHT BE INTERESTED IN…
“For the rest of the plane, if you don’t get a call from public health authorities it means you were not right next to that two-metre radius,” Tam said, adding that passengers who are not contacted “should remain calm.” Two metres is about the distance that infected droplets from a cough would travel.
Tam’s deputy, Dr. Howard Njoo, said it’s possible some passengers who were seated close to the patient live in provinces outside of Ontario.
In a statement Sunday, de Villa said passengers have been showing up at local hospital emergency departments without symptoms.
“While we appreciate that people may have concerns, and that people may worry about their health, we encourage people who were on this flight and who do not have signs of illness to continue with their routine activities and we ask that these people do not present to the health care system,” de Villa said.
After landing in Toronto, the infected man was taken from the airport in a private vehicle and authorities say he had little contact with anyone since his arrival outside of his immediate family. The patient called 911 the day after his arrival, was taken by ambulance to hospital Thursday, and is in stable condition.
De Villa said in an interview that only one member of the man’s family was in close contact with him. The family member has no symptoms and is doing well.
China’s health minister, Ma Xiaowei, told reporters in Beijing Sunday that an infected person can spread the coronavirus to others before experiencing symptoms. That’s different than the SARS coronavirus, which couldn’t be spread during incubation. The SARS outbreak began in China in 2002 and killed almost 800 people worldwide. The current coronavirus so far seems less dangerous than SARS. But de Villa cautioned that the virus was identified less than a month ago and the situation is “evolving.”
Hajdu stressed that “the risk is extremely low for Canadians,” noting the virus is spread only through close contact. “There is no need for Canadians to be alarmed,” she said, adding health authorities have learned much since SARS killed 44 people in Toronto.
Given global travel patterns, Tam said she expects more coronavirus cases will be “imported into Canada in the near term.” And she urged people participating in large public gatherings to take typical winter time precautions — “wash your hands, don’t cough towards someone, cough into a tissue or into your sleeve and discard the tissue properly. And stay home if you’re sick.”
The United States government is sending a charter plane to fly its consular staff out of Wuhan. Hajdu said the Canadian government is not currently planning a similar airlift for Canadians citizens there. But the government will assist Canadians who want help leaving Wuhan if they reach out to Global Affairs, she added.
The man believed to be infected was taken by ambulance to Toronto’s Sunnybrook hospital Thursday with a fever and cough. Tests came back positive for coronavirus on Saturday and the man is now being treated in isolation in a “negative pressure” room at the hospital. Dr. Jerome Leis, Sunnybrook’s medical director of infection prevention and control, said Sunday the patient remains in stable condition, and will only be released when he’s no longer a contagion risk. Leis said the patient’s presence at the hospital is not affecting care being given to other patients.
Tam said she expects laboratory confirmation on the presumed coronavirus infection within 24 hours.
Toronto Public Health is investigating every place the patient may have visited and any people he came in contact with, said Dr. Eileen de Villa, Toronto’s medical officer of health, at a separate press conference on Saturday.
Health officials around the world are working to contain the coronavirus, known as 2019-nCoV, which as of Sunday had infected nearly 2,000 people and led to 56 deaths in China, where it originated. Despite its rapid spread, the virus had not been declared an international public health emergency by the World Health Organization.
In central China’s Hubei province, some 51 million in 16 cities are essentially quarantined and under a travel ban.
Aside from China and Canada, cases have been reported in the U.S., Japan, South Korea, Thailand, Singapore, Vietnam and Hong Kong.
Source link
Related
