TORONTO — Canada’s first presumptive case of the novel coronavirus has been officially confirmed, Ontario health officials said Monday as they announced the patient’s wife has also contracted the illness. Meanwhile, 19 cases are under investigation in the province.
Dr. Barbara Yaffe, the province’s associate chief medical officer of health, said the confirmation came through earlier in the day following tests at the National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg. A Toronto man in his mid-50s had initially tested positive at a provincial facility days after returning to Toronto from Wuhan — the virus’s epicentre in China — via Guangzhou.
Yaffe said the testing process is now being repeated for the man’s wife, believed to be the second coronavirus patient in the country.
Public health officials say the woman’s husband had been showing mild symptoms on his flight from Guangzhou to Toronto. Upon arrival at Toronto, the man did not report to border-service officers that he was feeling ill, despite “detection” measures at the airport, which includes screening questions at electronic border kiosks that ask about previous travel to Wuhan in the past 14 days and remind people to report flu-like symptoms to border service agents.
A day after the man went home, a family member called 911 to report he was feeling ill, and that he had recently travelled to Wuhan, the National Post’s Sharon Kirkey reports. Paramedics, donned in protective gear, took him to Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, where he was immediately placed in isolation in a negative-pressure room. He was listed in stable condition Saturday.
After he became more ill, “when he needed medical support, in fact he followed all the information provided at the airport,” federal health minister Patty Hajdu said. “For me, that is a sign that the information at the border did actually percolate through to the patient and his family.”
A spokesperson for the ministry of health told the Post that the 19 people under investigation exhibited some of the symptoms of coronavirus and had a travel history to affected areas, while the presumptive cases tested positive with the provincial test.
“In many ways, this case is not surprising,” said Dr. David Williams, Ontario’s chief medical officer of health. “This individual has been in close proximity to her husband and, having also arrived in Toronto from the area of Wuhan, could also have been exposed to the virus in China.”
Toronto public health is working “flat out” to try to contact those passengers on the couple’s Jan. 22 flight from Beijing most at risk of infection – people in the three rows in front of and behind the pair’s own seats, said Dr. Eileen De Villa, the city’s medical officer of health.
We’re in close contact with public health authorities in all provinces and territories, and have offered any resources necessary to Ontario. #coronavirus
She said they had so far managed to reach a “few” of them, but did not say exactly how many passengers the department is targeting.
The Post’s Tom Blackwell reports the vast majority of the 19 people under investigation in various parts of the province have been admitted to hospital and are in isolation, with appropriate protective measures taken around them, said Yaffe.
Canada’s chief public health officer has said she believes there will be more cases “imported into Canada” because of global flight patterns, but she notes there’s little risk of becoming infected here.
Chief Public Health Officer of Canada Theresa Tam participates in a press conference following the announcement by the Government of Ontario of the first presumptive confirmed case of a novel coronavirus in Canada, in Ottawa, on Sunday, Jan. 26, 2020.
Justin Tang /
THE CANADIAN PRESS
The Toronto man “has been managed with all appropriate infection and prevention control protocols, so the risk of onward spread in Canada is low,” Tam said.
“Nevertheless it would not be unexpected that there will be more cases imported into Canada in the near term given global travel patterns.” Nine other suspected cases in Ontario alone were under investigation as of Sunday.
The news of Canada’s first coronavirus patient came Saturday as authorities around the world grappled with the new type of virus, which originated in China but has since spread.
Several countries, including the United States, have said they plan to evacuate diplomats and visitors from Wuhan, the virus’s epicentre.
Foreign Affairs Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne said in a statement Sunday that Canada doesn’t have a diplomatic presence in Wuhan, but he noted the government is in contact with and providing assistance to Canadians in the area.
A directions sign is seen at Sunnybrook Hospital, where a patient is being treated in isolation for what Canadian health officials call the first presumptive confirmed case of novel coronavirus, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada January 26, 2020.
REUTERS/Carlos Osorio
China is reporting 2,744 cases and 81 deaths, but it remains to be seen whether the virus is as dangerous as the common flu, which kills thousands every year in Canada alone.
A top Chinese health official warned on Sunday that the virus’s spread was accelerating despite a lockdown affecting 56 million people. The quarantine could make the situation worse, including by exacerbating shortages of medical supplies.
Most of the 2,744 people who have contracted the virus live in China, but it has spread to 10 other countries. Five cases have been confirmed in the U.S.
Canadian doctors are urging concerned citizens to take the same sorts of precautions they would to avoid common illnesses, such as frequent hand-washing and coughing into the arm or sleeve rather than the hand.
They also say that wearing surgical masks during everyday life has little use in protecting against coronavirus, despite being effective in hospital settings. Early data on the new form of virus suggests masks won’t be especially effective, and some say that repeatedly touching and adjusting the masks with unwashed hands could do more harm than good.
But the fear that would prompt someone to buy such a mask is perhaps heightened by parallels to the 2002 SARS outbreak that originated in China and infected more than 8,000 people, killing 800. There were 44 Canadians killed by that strain of coronavirus.
VANCOUVER – Contract negotiations resume today in Vancouver in a labour dispute that has paralyzed container cargo shipping at British Columbia’s ports since Monday.
The BC Maritime Employers Association and International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 514 are scheduled to meet for the next three days in mediated talks to try to break a deadlock in negotiations.
The union, which represents more than 700 longshore supervisors at ports, including Vancouver, Prince Rupert and Nanaimo, has been without a contract since March last year.
The latest talks come after employers locked out workers in response to what it said was “strike activity” by union members.
The start of the lockout was then followed by several days of no engagement between the two parties, prompting federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon to speak with leaders on both sides, asking them to restart talks.
MacKinnon had said that the talks were “progressing at an insufficient pace, indicating a concerning absence of urgency from the parties involved” — a sentiment echoed by several business groups across Canada.
In a joint letter, more than 100 organizations, including the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, Business Council of Canada and associations representing industries from automotive and fertilizer to retail and mining, urged the government to do whatever it takes to end the work stoppage.
“While we acknowledge efforts to continue with mediation, parties have not been able to come to a negotiated agreement,” the letter says. “So, the federal government must take decisive action, using every tool at its disposal to resolve this dispute and limit the damage caused by this disruption.
“We simply cannot afford to once again put Canadian businesses at risk, which in turn puts Canadian livelihoods at risk.”
In the meantime, the union says it has filed a complaint to the Canada Industrial Relations Board against the employers, alleging the association threatened to pull existing conditions out of the last contract in direct contact with its members.
“The BCMEA is trying to undermine the union by attempting to turn members against its democratically elected leadership and bargaining committee — despite the fact that the BCMEA knows full well we received a 96 per cent mandate to take job action if needed,” union president Frank Morena said in a statement.
The employers have responded by calling the complaint “another meritless claim,” adding the final offer to the union that includes a 19.2 per cent wage increase over a four-year term remains on the table.
“The final offer has been on the table for over a week and represents a fair and balanced proposal for employees, and if accepted would end this dispute,” the employers’ statement says. “The offer does not require any concessions from the union.”
The union says the offer does not address the key issue of staffing requirement at the terminals as the port introduces more automation to cargo loading and unloading, which could potentially require fewer workers to operate than older systems.
The Port of Vancouver is the largest in Canada and has seen a number of labour disruptions, including two instances involving the rail and grain storage sectors earlier this year.
A 13-day strike by another group of workers at the port last year resulted in the disruption of a significant amount of shipping and trade.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
The Royal Canadian Legion says a new partnership with e-commerce giant Amazon is helping boost its veterans’ fund, and will hopefully expand its donor base in the digital world.
Since the Oct. 25 launch of its Amazon.ca storefront, the legion says it has received nearly 10,000 orders for poppies.
Online shoppers can order lapel poppies on Amazon in exchange for donations or buy items such as “We Remember” lawn signs, Remembrance Day pins and other accessories, with all proceeds going to the legion’s Poppy Trust Fund for Canadian veterans and their families.
Nujma Bond, the legion’s national spokesperson, said the organization sees this move as keeping up with modern purchasing habits.
“As the world around us evolves we have been looking at different ways to distribute poppies and to make it easier for people to access them,” she said in an interview.
“This is definitely a way to reach a wider number of Canadians of all ages. And certainly younger Canadians are much more active on the web, on social media in general, so we’re also engaging in that way.”
Al Plume, a member of a legion branch in Trenton, Ont., said the online store can also help with outreach to veterans who are far from home.
“For veterans that are overseas and are away, (or) can’t get to a store they can order them online, it’s Amazon.” Plume said.
Plume spent 35 years in the military with the Royal Engineers, and retired eight years ago. He said making sure veterans are looked after is his passion.
“I’ve seen the struggles that our veterans have had with Veterans Affairs … and that’s why I got involved, with making sure that the people get to them and help the veterans with their paperwork.”
But the message about the Amazon storefront didn’t appear to reach all of the legion’s locations, with volunteers at Branch 179 on Vancouver’s Commercial Drive saying they hadn’t heard about the online push.
Holly Paddon, the branch’s poppy campaign co-ordinator and bartender, said the Amazon partnership never came up in meetings with other legion volunteers and officials.
“I work at the legion, I work with the Vancouver poppy office and I go to the meetings for the Vancouver poppy campaign — which includes all the legions in Vancouver — and not once has this been mentioned,” she said.
Paddon said the initiative is a great idea, but she would like to have known more about it.
The legion also sells a larger collection of items at poppystore.ca.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
