Public health agencies say they are awaiting instructions from the World Health Organization, which convened a panel of independent experts on Wednesday to determine whether the outbreak should be declared a “public health emergency of international concern. Because the coronavirus has appeared in other countries. Such global emergencies have been declared in the past for the Ebola virus in Africa and the Zika virus in the Americas.
Dr. Theresa Tam, Chief Public Health Officer of Canada, however, says the risk for Canadians of contracting the novel coronavirus remains low.
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Ontario’s Chief Medical Officer of Health David Williams says the country is in a much better position to respond to the outbreak than it was 17 years ago when severe acute respiratory syndrome – “SARS” – hit the ground running. more than 900 deaths worldwide, including 44 in Canada, in the greater Toronto area.
Dr Williams explains that researchers have already identified the new coronavirus and that a method to test it is already in use, which was not the case for the early stages of the SARS epidemic in 2002.
He recalls that front-line staff in hospitals and clinics are already asking those with flu-like symptoms their travel history to better diagnose and track the new virus.
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