A case of novel coronavirus was presumptively confirmed in Toronto on Jan. 25.
Here’s what we know so far:
What do we know so far about this case?
A man in his 50s travelled from Wuhan to Guangzhou, China before arriving in Toronto on Jan. 22. Public health officials say he became ill within a day and self-reported by having a family member call 911.
“The emergency service was aware of his travel history. They used full precautions,” said Dr. Barbare Yaffe of Toronto Public Health at a Saturday press conference.
The man was taken to Sunnybrook Hospital with fever and respiratory symptoms, and is currently in stable condition in a negative-pressure room, with staff taking precautions.
A test from the Public Health Ontario Laboratory confirmed the diagnosis. Toronto Public Health has been speaking with the man to determine exactly who he’s had contact with.
“The last word I heard was there was very little by way of contact,” says Dr. Eileen de Villa, the city’s medical officer of health.
She added that their understanding is that the man took “private transportation” home, not mass transportation.
“But we are absolutely making sure that we get the history of all the places the individual has been. That’s part of regular public health practice, in order that we can then determine who needs to be informed and what sorts of measures they need to take,” she said.
Yaffe says it’s important to keep the situation in context.
“The evidence to date is that this is not easily transmitted between people,” she says. Transmission, she said, is “mostly to very close household contacts.”
This man’s household contacts are a “very small number of people” who have already been put into self-isolation and are being monitored.
What does a presumptive confirmed or presumptive positive case mean?
The presumptive positive result comes from a local “rapid” test that gives health authorities a head-start on their work, according to Dr. Peter Donnelly from Public Health Ontario.
Public Health Ontario developed a “specific accurate and rapid test” for the novel coronavirus, he said. The National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg also has a test, albeit slightly different.
The laboratories collaborate with each other, he explained.
“What we’ve agreed is that because we know our test is rapid and reliable, we can actually make a positive result from one of our tests actionable,” he said.
“So in other words, we don’t wait.”
The presumptive positive result becomes a confirmed case once the Winnipeg laboratory provides its result.
The risk is ‘still low’
Dr. David Williams, chief medical officer for Ontario, says the risk to Ontarians “is still low.”
“The system we’d hoped would work as it is, and it did,” he said.
Federal Health Minister Patty Hadju too said the risk remains low. In a statement Saturday, she said,”While the risk of an outbreak of novel coronavirus in Canada remains low, I encourage Canadians to tell your health care professional if you have travelled to an affected area of China, and develop flu-like symptoms.”
Ontario Health Minister Christine Elliott says the province has been “actively monitoring” to swiftly detect any potential cases and contain them.
“I want to assure all Ontarians that this is exactly what transpired,” she said.
She stressed that the patient was detected and “immediately put in isolation,” with lab tests ordered and Toronto Public Health launching “extensive case and contact management” to prevent any further spread.
“The system is working,” Elliott said. “These protocols and procedures have been in place for some time.
“To be clear, health officials are actively working to ensure that we identify everyone this person was in contact with in order to contain this virus.”
Canada’s chief medical officer of health, Dr. Theresa Tam, tweeted that “systems have been and remain vigilant across the country” and that the risk of an outbreak in Canada “remains low.”
3/5 Canada’s disease prevention and control systems are designed to quickly detect and contain the spread of infectious diseases and have done so in this case. Systems have been and remain vigilant across the country. #coronavirus#2019nCoV
The province is in a “very different place” than it was during SARS in the early 2000s, according to Donnelly.
“We know what the virus is,” he said. “We have a fast, reliable test for it. That really is a game-changer.”
Having the local fast testing means “you can very quickly find out whether people have this or not.”
“You can follow up their contacts,” Donnelly said. “Where its appropriate, you can test them.
“These are the tools that you need in order to control this and to stop its spread.”
Donnelly also said it’s important to bear in mind that most people will likely have a mild form of the virus.
“Many people in China probably don’t even know they’ve had it, haven’t sought medical care, or if they have sought medical care, they’ve recovered quite quickly,” he said.
What can people do?
Here’s the advice on how to protect yourself that Ontario has put out via a webpage that will be updated every weekday:
Provincial health officials say that reducing exposure and transmission to a number of illnesses, including coronaviruses, can be done by:
washing hands often
avoiding contact with people who are unwell
practicing proper cough and sneeze etiquette
The province also says that anyone travelling to an area with known cases of coronavirus should avoid the following:
high-risk areas such as farms, live animal markets and areas where animals may be slaughtered
contact with animals (alive or dead), including pigs, chickens, ducks and wild birds
surfaces with animal secretions or feces
Federal health officials echo similar advice, with Minister Hadju reminding those who have travelled to an affected area of China and subsequently developed flu-like symptoms to reach out to their health care professional.
5/5 Cdns can take precautions to prevent respiratory illnesses like #coronavirus#2019nCoV, including:
✔️frequent #handwashing w/ soap & water for at least 20 seconds
✔️#Elbowsneeze & avoid touching eyes, nose, mouth
✔️Avoid contact with sick people
Possibly. Provincial and federal health officials have indicated they would not be surprised to see more confirmed cases.
Williams said that Ontario has been waiting for its first case.
“I would think with the amount of flow and traffic and stuff, we might see some others,” he said. Health officials remain vigilant in their monitoring, he added.
“I would be very surprised if this is our last case,” Williams said. “But we have to wait to see.”
In a tweet Saturday evening, Dr. Tam from the Public Health Agency of Canada said: “While additional confirmed #2019nCoV cases would not be unexpected, the risk of an outbreak in Canada remains low.”
4/5 Health authorities/providers across the country are monitoring the situation and investigating any incidents of concern. While additional confirmed #2019nCoV cases would not be unexpected, the risk of an outbreak in Canada remains low. More info: https://t.co/Ch0n0sRqt7
As of Saturday, the World Health Organization said there were 23 confirmed cases outside of China, with 21 of them having travel history to Wuhan City.
The international organization has not changed its risk assessment of the situation since Jan. 22, deeming it “very high in China, high at the regional level and moderate at the global level.”
WHO’s risk assessment of the new #coronavirus (2019-nCoV) situation has not changed:
?very high in #China??
?high at the regional level
?moderate at the global level
MONCTON, N.B. – New Brunswick RCMP say two youths have been arrested after an emergency alert was issued Monday evening about someone carrying a gun in the province’s southeast.
Caledonia Region Mounties say they were first called out to Main Street in the community of Salisbury around 7 p.m. on reports of a shooting.
A 48-year-old man was found at the scene suffering from gunshot wounds and he was rushed to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
Police say in the interest of public safety, they issued an Alert Ready message at 8:15 p.m. for someone driving a silver Ford F-150 pickup truck and reportedly carrying a firearm with dangerous intent in the Salisbury and Moncton area.
Two youths were arrested without incident later in the evening in Salisbury, and the alert was cancelled just after midnight Tuesday.
Police are still looking for the silver pickup truck, covered in mud, with possible Nova Scotia licence plate HDC 958. They now confirm the truck was stolen from Central Blissville.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
MISSISSAUGA, Ont. – Golf Canada has set an impressive stretch goal of having 30 professional golfers at the highest levels of the sport by 2032.
The World Junior Girls Golf Championship is a huge part of that target.
Credit Valley Golf and Country Club will host the international tournament from Sept. 30 to Oct. 5, with 24 teams representing 23 nations — Canada gets two squads — competing. Lindsay McGrath, a 17-year-old golfer from Oakville, Ont., said she’s excited to be representing Canada and continue to develop her game.
“I’m really grateful to be here,” said McGrath on Monday after a news conference in Credit Valley’s clubhouse in Mississauga, Ont. “It’s just such an awesome feeling being here and representing our country, wearing all the logos and being on Team Canada.
“I’ve always wanted to play in this tournament, so it’s really special to me.”
McGrath will be joined by Nobelle Park of Oakville, Ont., and Eileen Park of Red Deer, Alta., on Team Canada 2. All three earned their places through a qualifying tournament last month.
“I love my teammates so much,” said McGrath. “I know Nobelle and Eileen very well. I’m just so excited to be with them. We have such a great relationship.”
Shauna Liu of Maple, Ont., Calgary’s Aphrodite Deng and Clairey Lin make up Team Canada 2. Liu earned her exemption following her win at the 2024 Canadian Junior Girls Championship while Deng earned her exemption as being the low eligible Canadian on the world amateur golf ranking as of Aug. 7.
Deng was No. 175 at the time, she has since improved to No. 171 and is Canada’s lowest-ranked player.
“I think it’s a really great opportunity,” said Liu. “We don’t really get that many opportunities to play with people from across the world, so it’s really great to meet new people and play with them.
“It’s great to see maybe how they play and take parts from their game that we might also implement our own games.”
Golf Canada founded the World Junior Girls Golf Championship in 2014 to fill a void in women’s international competition and help grow its own homegrown talent. The hosts won for the first time last year when Vancouver’s Anna Huang, Toronto’s Vanessa Borovilos and Vancouver’s Vanessa Zhang won team gold and Huang earned individual silver.
Medallists who have gone on to win on the LPGA Tour include Brooke Henderson of Smiths Falls, Ont., who was fourth in the individual competition at the inaugural tournament. She was on Canada’s bronze-medal team in 2014 with Selena Costabile of Thornhill, Ont., and Calgary’s Jaclyn Lee.
Other notable competitors who went on to become LPGA Tour winners include Angel Yin and Megan Khang of the United States, as well as Yuka Saso of the Philippines, Sweden’s Linn Grant and Atthaya Thitikul of Thailand.
“It’s not if, it’s when they’re going to be on the LPGA Tour,” said Garrett Ball, Golf Canada’s chief operating officer, of how Canada’s golfers in the World Junior Girls Championship can be part of the organization’s goal to have 30 pros in the LPGA and PGA Tours by 2032.
“Events like this, like the She Plays Golf festival that we launched two years ago, and then the CPKC Women’s Open exemptions that we utilize to bring in our national team athletes and get the experience has been important in that pathway.”
The individual winner of the World Junior Girls Golf Championship will earn a berth in next year’s CPKC Women’s Open at nearby Mississaugua Golf and Country Club.
Both clubs, as well as former RBC Canadian Open host site Glen Abbey Golf Club, were devastated by heavy rains through June and July as the Greater Toronto Area had its wettest summer in recorded history.
Jason Hanna, the chief operating officer of Credit Valley Golf and Country Club, said that he has seen the Credit River flood so badly that it affected the course’s playability a handful of times over his nearly two decades with the club.
Staff and members alike came together to clean up the course after the flooding was over, with hundreds of people coming together to make the club playable again.
“You had to show up, bring your own rake, bring your own shovel, bring your own gloves, and then we’d take them down to the golf course, assign them to areas where they would work, and then we would do a big barbecue down at the halfway house,” said Hanna. “We got guys, like, 80 years old, putting in eight-hour days down there, working away.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
NEW YORK (AP) — Fenway Park has the Ted Williams seat. And now Citi Field has the Grimace seat.
The kid-friendly McDonald’s character made another appearance at the ballpark Monday, when the New York Mets unveiled a commemorative purple seat in section 302 to honor “his special connection to Mets fans.”
Wearing his pear-shaped purple costume and a baseball glove on backwards, Grimace threw out a funny-looking first pitch — as best he could with those furry fingers and short arms — before New York beat the Miami Marlins at Citi Field on June 12.
That victory began a seven-game winning streak, and Grimace the Mets’ good-luck charm soon went viral, taking on a life of its own online.
New York is 53-31 since June 12, the best record in the majors during that span. The Mets were tied with rival Atlanta for the last National League playoff spot as they opened their final homestand of the season Monday night against Washington.
The new Grimace seat in the second deck in right field — located in row 6, seat 12 to signify 6/12 on the calendar — was brought into the Shannon Forde press conference room Monday afternoon. The character posed next to the chair and with fans who strolled into the room.
The seat is available for purchase for each of the Mets’ remaining home games.
“It’s been great to see how our fanbase created the Grimace phenomenon following his first pitch in June and in the months since,” Mets senior vice president of partnerships Brenden Mallette said in a news release. “As we explored how to further capture the magic of this moment and celebrate our new celebrity fan, installing a commemorative seat ahead of fan appreciation weekend felt like the perfect way to give something back to the fans in a fun and unique way.”
Up in Boston, the famous Ted Williams seat is painted bright red among rows of green chairs deep in the right-field stands at Fenway Park to mark where a reported 502-foot homer hit by the Hall of Fame slugger landed in June 1946.
So, does this catapult Grimace into Splendid Splinter territory?
“I don’t know if we put him on the same level,” Mets executive vice president and chief marketing officer Andy Goldberg said with a grin.
“It’s just been a fun year, and at the same time, we’ve been playing great ball. Ever since the end of May, we have been crushing it,” he explained. “So I think that added to the mystique.”
