A Toronto woman — one of millions of people heading to China for the Lunar New year — says she is unfazed by the coronavirus outbreak, which has killed 17 people amid more than 570 confirmed cases.
Nancy Li is travelling to the Chinese city of Guangzhou Wednesday night as the SARS-like coronavirus spreads and health officials in several places expand their enhanced checks.
“This is the first time I go back in five years, that’s why it’s particularly important for me to go,” Li told CBC News.
“I am stocking up the face masks and … hand sanitizer and gloves.”
The coronavirus strain, previously unknown to scientists, was thought to have emerged from an animal market in the central city of Wuhan, with cases now detected as far away as the United States.
The World Health Organization says it will decide on Thursday whether to declare a global emergency.
Wuhan is closing its transport networks and advising citizens not to leave the city, Chinese state media reported.
“For Lunar New Year, the human flow is out of Guangzhou into the inland. People are leaving Guangzhou to Wuhan, not the other way around,” Li said.
“If I was going to Wuhan I might really, like, reconsider this trip. There will be less people in Guangzhou this time of the year.”
No confirmed case of coronavirus in Canada
Li said she will be in China for 10 days and is more concerned about going through airports, given the number of people passing through them, some of whom might have been to areas affected by the outbreak.
“I will go home and just basically spend time with my grandma, that’s OK,” Li said.
“I’m worried about the airport and stuff.”
There is no confirmed case of the coronavirus in Canada but Li is also concerned that there might be intense screening in place by the time she returns to Toronto.
Dr. Eileen de Villa, medical officer of health for the City of Toronto, says health authorities are on high alert and are making preparations in the event the coronavirus comes to Canada. (CBC)
For those heading back to Canada after the celebrations, Dr. Eileen de Villa, medical officer of health for the City of Toronto, said her first advice to those who are unwell is to avoid contact with other people.
“Keep your illness to yourself,” de Villa said on CBC Radio’s Metro Morning.
“If, however, you are feeling unwell enough that you feel you need medical attention, then do seek that medical attention,” she added.
“But make sure that you tell your health-care provider, one, of your symptoms; and, two, of any travel history, so that that can be taken into consideration both in terms of diagnosing what you might have and in terms of infection control and prevention measures.”
Authorities on high alert
She said the authorities are also on high alert and are making preparations in the event the coronavirus comes to Canada.
“I think we always thought that there might be some possibility. We have a disease entity that we know had shown some degree of human-to-human transmission. How quickly, how readily it goes from human-to-human is still being established,” de Villa said.
“In a pretty mobile population, particularly here in Canada in cities like Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal, we see quite a bit of international travel, so I’m not particularly surprised to see some degree of movement of this virus and its emergence in the United States.”
At the same time, de Villa said Toronto has had its share of experience dealing with disease outbreaks.
“I think what’s really important in our case in Toronto, given that we’ve had so much experience — we’ve had the experience of SARS, … pandemic influenza in 2009, Middle East Respiratory Syndrome in 2012 — we’ve had lots of experience dealing with this kind of situation, so we feel that we’ve learned the lessons from those and are prepared to put those lessons into action.”
Ready to respond, province says
Meanwhile, on Wednesday afternoon, Health Minister Christine Elliott said while the risks posed by the new coronavirus to Ontarians remain low, the province is actively monitoring and is ready to respond.
Ontario Health Minister Christine Elliott says coronavirus has been added as a designated disease reportable under the province’s public health legislation. (CBC News)
Speaking at a news conference, Elliott said she briefed Premier Doug Ford and her cabinet colleagues earlier in the day on the province’s efforts to monitor the disease and the state of readiness to respond.
“At that meeting our government approved new actions to strengthen the ministry’s ability to monitor any coronavirus cases by adding novel coronavirus as a designated disease reportable under the province’s public health legislation,” Elliott said.
“Now physicians, hospitals and other health-care facilities will be required to report a suspected or confirmed case of the new coronavirus to their local medical officer of health.
“The local public health unit can then quickly and effectively take all necessary measures to investigate, complete lab tests and do case and contact management to prevent and control further spread of the infection,” Elliott added.
HALIFAX – The Nova Scotia government says it could be months before it reveals how many people are on the wait-list for a family doctor.
The head of the province’s health authority told reporters Wednesday that the government won’t release updated data until the 160,000 people who were on the wait-list in June are contacted to verify whether they still need primary care.
Karen Oldfield said Nova Scotia Health is working on validating the primary care wait-list data before posting new numbers, and that work may take a matter of months. The most recent public wait-list figures are from June 1, when 160,234 people, or about 16 per cent of the population, were on it.
“It’s going to take time to make 160,000 calls,” Oldfield said. “We are not talking weeks, we are talking months.”
The interim CEO and president of Nova Scotia Health said people on the list are being asked where they live, whether they still need a family doctor, and to give an update on their health.
A spokesperson with the province’s Health Department says the government and its health authority are “working hard” to turn the wait-list registry into a useful tool, adding that the data will be shared once it is validated.
Nova Scotia’s NDP are calling on Premier Tim Houston to immediately release statistics on how many people are looking for a family doctor. On Tuesday, the NDP introduced a bill that would require the health minister to make the number public every month.
“It is unacceptable for the list to be more than three months out of date,” NDP Leader Claudia Chender said Tuesday.
Chender said releasing this data regularly is vital so Nova Scotians can track the government’s progress on its main 2021 campaign promise: fixing health care.
The number of people in need of a family doctor has more than doubled between the 2021 summer election campaign and June 2024. Since September 2021 about 300 doctors have been added to the provincial health system, the Health Department said.
“We’ll know if Tim Houston is keeping his 2021 election promise to fix health care when Nova Scotians are attached to primary care,” Chender said.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 11, 2024.
ST. JOHN’S, N.L. – Newfoundland and Labrador‘s chief medical officer is monitoring the rise of whooping cough infections across the province as cases of the highly contagious disease continue to grow across Canada.
Dr. Janice Fitzgerald says that so far this year, the province has recorded 230 confirmed cases of the vaccine-preventable respiratory tract infection, also known as pertussis.
Late last month, Quebec reported more than 11,000 cases during the same time period, while Ontario counted 470 cases, well above the five-year average of 98. In Quebec, the majority of patients are between the ages of 10 and 14.
Meanwhile, New Brunswick has declared a whooping cough outbreak across the province. A total of 141 cases were reported by last month, exceeding the five-year average of 34.
The disease can lead to severe complications among vulnerable populations including infants, who are at the highest risk of suffering from complications like pneumonia and seizures. Symptoms may start with a runny nose, mild fever and cough, then progress to severe coughing accompanied by a distinctive “whooping” sound during inhalation.
“The public, especially pregnant people and those in close contact with infants, are encouraged to be aware of symptoms related to pertussis and to ensure vaccinations are up to date,” Newfoundland and Labrador’s Health Department said in a statement.
Whooping cough can be treated with antibiotics, but vaccination is the most effective way to control the spread of the disease. As a result, the province has expanded immunization efforts this school year. While booster doses are already offered in Grade 9, the vaccine is now being offered to Grade 8 students as well.
Public health officials say whooping cough is a cyclical disease that increases every two to five or six years.
Meanwhile, New Brunswick’s acting chief medical officer of health expects the current case count to get worse before tapering off.
A rise in whooping cough cases has also been reported in the United States and elsewhere. The Pan American Health Organization issued an alert in July encouraging countries to ramp up their surveillance and vaccination coverage.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 10, 2024.
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