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Officials in Ontario are reporting a new case of the novel coronavirus that they say is linked to a cruise ship that left San Francisco in early February.
Peel Public Health says the man in his 60s from Mississauga, Ont., was a passenger on the Grand Princess cruise ship and returned to Canada on Feb. 28.
He is now considered the 23rd case of COVID-19 in the province.
The agency says the man was assessed at a local hospital before being released into self-isolation.
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News from Peel region came after Ontario’s chief medical officer of health announced two other new cases of the virus on Thursday.
Dr. David Williams says those cases are a woman who returned to Kitchener, Ont., from Italy and a man who returned to Toronto from Iran.
Williams says everyone who has tested positive for the virus has been isolated.
“Overall, the containment continues well,” Williams said. “The risk of transmission in Ontario is low.”
The latest cases involve a woman in her 50s who went to Grand River Hospital’s emergency department in Kitchener, Ont., on Tuesday after returning from Italy. She was sent home and remains in self-isolation with mild symptoms.
“It has been determined that she had mild symptoms on flights from Milan to Lisbon, and then Lisbon to Toronto,” said Dr. Hsiu-Li Wang, the acting medical officer of health for the Region of Waterloo.
In the other case, authorities said the man in his 60s went to the emergency department at Toronto’s Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre on Saturday. He was also sent home and remains in self-isolation, authorities said.
The Alberta government says the province’s first presumptive case of the novel coronavirus involves a woman from the Calgary area.
Dr. Deena Hinshaw, the province’s chief medical officer of health, says it appears the woman in her 50s contracted COVID-19 while on board the Grand Princess cruise ship in California.
Hinshaw says the woman returned to Alberta on Feb. 21 and isolated herself at home on Feb. 28.
The woman is expected to make a full recovery.
Hinshaw says it may take a few days for the national laboratory in Winnipeg to confirm the case.
But she says anyone who was in contact with the woman and anyone who was on the cruise is advised to isolate themselves for two weeks, even if they feel well.
Canada’s National Microbiology Laboratory is confirming a second case of the new coronavirus in Quebec.
Provincial health authorities said today the federal laboratory in Winnipeg confirmed the positive test results taken by Quebec’s health lab.
The case involves a traveller who returned to the province from India.
Quebec authorities say the man was initially cared for at the hospital in Mont-Laurier, northwest of Montreal, after exhibiting symptoms.
The provincial Health Department says the patient was transferred to the Jewish General Hospital in Montreal on Wednesday, one of four centres in Quebec designated to deal with the virus.
Officials say they are trying to retrace the patient’s movements before he went to the hospital.
British Columbia has announced eight new cases of COVID-19, including the first apparent community transmission of the virus in the province.
Dr. Bonnie Henry, the provincial health officer, said Thursday the case of a woman in the Vancouver area is of particular concern because she did not travel recently and has had no known contact with anyone else diagnosed with the novel coronavirus.
“This is a community case and we are doing a detailed investigation right now to try and determine where her source of infection was,” said Henry, adding the woman was initially tested for influenza.
“She has not recently travelled and has no known contact with any of our known cases of COVID-19. That’s something we are paying a lot of attention too, of course.”
Henry said officials are doing “disease detective work” to determine the source of the woman’s infection.
“There’s likely at least one other person out there who has this disease or had this disease, and we need to find them,” she told a news conference.
Henry said the number of new cases announced Thursday is not surprising, but there are heightened concerns about the possible community transmission and another case involving a woman from Seattle who was visiting family in B.C.’s Lower Mainland.
Health officials in B.C. and Washington state are also working to determine the woman’s contacts and movements, Henry said.
“Clearly, that is of concern with us and we are working with our neighbours to the south in Washington state to try and determine where her exposure might have been,” she said.
Seattle reported at least eight COVID-19 deaths this week.
In Vancouver, a private university has closed its doors for three days after two of its students may have been exposed to the new coronavirus.
A news release from University Canada West says the school was informed of a presumptive case of COVID-19 late Wednesday and it is taking precautionary steps by keeping the campus closed until Saturday.
The Visual College of Art and Design, which shares the building, is also closed.
The university says the student with a presumptive case of the novel coronavirus was visited by the person’s father, who tested positive for COVID-19 after an overseas visit.
The release says the second student who is in isolation is a roommate.
It says students and staff who may have been in close contact with the affected students have been contacted and given advice.
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