Third Case of Coronavirus Confirmed in Ontario

Friday, 31 January 2020 15:13

A women from London who just got back from Wuhan, China is the third confirmed case of the Coronavirus in Ontario.

LONDON - The Province of Ontario has confirmed a third case of the coronavirus.

The most recent case involves a patient from London. The provincial Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. David Williams made the announcement at a press conference today. The new patient is a woman in her 20's who recently came back from Wuhan in China to Canada on January 23rd. She is a also a student at Western University.

Dr. Williams says hospital staff were not at risk during this process.

"She was admitted at the hospital under full protection, so no staff were put at risk throughout this process. Throughout this time, protocols and procedures were executed in such a way that there has been no risk at all to Ontarian's or to the health system during this process."

Dr. Williams says overall risk to the general public remains low, despite this most recent case.

"The majority of the cases that were previously considered negative have been confirmed as negative by the National Medical Laboratory. Only this one is the one so far that they had any question with and it was just barely positive, however they agreed with our laboratory staff that we should switch that from a negative to a positive case. The risk continues to be very low for Ontarian's in this regard and in accordance with the new case in London, it's the same thing."

Medical Officer of Health and CEO for the Middlesex London Health Unit Dr. Chris Mackie says the patient did an incredible job in isolating herself to protect the public.

"We do have a case here, where both the system worked well and also you had a patient who went above and beyond to protect the public and the people she was in contact with. This is someone who wore the equivalent of a surgical mask for her entire travel from Wuhan to London, even though she didn't have symptoms at the time. Because she knew of the risks associated with the travel to Wuhan, she went straight into isolation in her home when she returned home. The only time she has been out of her home since returning to Wuhan was when she went to the hospital for testing and again, wore the equivalent of a surgical mask to protect others in the hospital, the hospital is well aware of how to handle this kind of situation and took all the precautions necessary."

Earlier today, the first patient in Canada with a confirmed case of coronavirus was discharged from a hospital in Toronto. They were sent home to stay in self-isolation.