A timeline of the virus
DEC. 31
WHO’S China Country Office informed of cases of pneumonia of unknown cause detected in Wuhan City, Hubei province of China. Outbreak believed to have been in seafood and poultry market in the city of 11 million in central China. However, the first human infections in China may have occurred in November 2019 or earlier.
JAN. 14
Public Health Agency of Canada’s assessment of public health risk to Canada is “low.”
JAN. 20
Canada’s chief public health officer, Dr. Theresa Tam, tells reporters that, out of “an abundance of precaution,” travellers will be asked at electronic immigration kiosks at Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver international airports if they have travelled to virus- affected areas and to report flu- like symptoms to border services agents.
JAN 23
Chinese authorities close off Wuhan, cancelling planes and trains leaving Wuhan, suspending buses, subway and ferry services; second city in China, Huanggang, placed in lockdown.
JAN 23 (SAME DAY)
A 56-year- old man arrives at Toronto’s Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre’s emergency department with fever and dry cough following return from Wuhan the day before. Canada’s patient zero. He’s discharged home on Day 8 of hospital stay. His wife is confirmed positive. Both recover fully with home isolation.
JAN. 29
Tina Namiesniowski, president of the Public Health Agency of Canada ( PHAC), tells federal health committee “currently, our objective is confinement, to limit the impact and spread of the virus …. The system is working as expected.” There are now three confirmed cases in Canada, one in Ontario and two in B.C. Tam defends policy of voluntary self- isolation of only travellers showing clear symptoms. “For other completely asymptomatic people, currently there’s no evidence that we should be quarantining them,” Tam says.
JAN. 30
WHO declares novel coronavirus a “public health emergency of international concern.” Person- to- person spread is confirmed in four countries (Germany, Japan, Vietnam and the United States) outside of China.
FEB 6
Tam recommends all travellers returning from Hubei province to stay at home and limit contact with others for 14 days. By now, the U.S., Japan, Philippines, New Zealand and Australia have closed their borders to foreign travellers from China.
FEB. 19 & 21
Cases reported in Iran and Italy with no known direct link to Mainland China.
FEB. 20
Canada reports its first case related to travel outside China in a traveller from Iran.
MARCH 4
Federal Health Minister Patty Hajdu says that, as more countries experience outbreaks, “the less relevant borders become. A virus knows no bounds.” At the same media briefing, Tam says a border “is the spot where you provide people information as to what they should be watching out for and what they should do if they get sick.”
MARCH 7
Federal health officials continue to stress risk to Canadians is low. There are 54 confirmed and “presumptive” cases, most in Ontario and B.C. Tam repeats that Canada is well prepared to deal with the pandemic.
MARCH 8
A man in his 80s, a resident of the Lynn Valley Care Centre in North Vancouver, dies of COVID-19, the first person in Canada to succumb to it.
MARCH 9
Italy expands quarantine from the Lombardy region to entire country as Italy’s case counts surge. Canada’s Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland writes to provincial and territorial premiers asking them to tell federal government of any critical gaps in supplies or capacity to deal with the pandemic. Canada begins importing cases from India, the U. K. and the U.S. Evidence grows the virus can be spread by people before they develop symptoms.
MARCH 11
WHO declares COVID-19 a global pandemic.
MARCH 12
Ontario Premier Doug Ford tells Ontario families to “travel” and “have fun” on March Break.
MARCH 13
Health Canada advises Canadians to avoid all non- essential travel abroad.
MARCH 15
Tam elevates risk from lowrisk to “serious.” Testing still remains focused on travel- related cases.
MARCH 16
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announces Canada is shutting its borders to travellers from other countries other than the United States, effective Mar. 18. “If you’re abroad, it’s time for you to come home. If you’ve just arrived you must self- isolate for 14 days.” PM tells all Canadians to stay home as much as possible. Hospitals in B.C. and Ontario begin cancelling thousands of elective surgeries to free up hundreds of beds, as well as ICUS and ventilators, for COVID-19 patients and moving anyone who can be moved to “alternate facilities.”
MARCH 21
Canada – Travel ban extended to all non- essential U.S. travel. Canada- U.S. border temporarily closed, with limited exceptions.
MARCH 24
Tam formally announces community spread of COVID-19, marking what she calls a “fundamental shift” in transmission of the disease in Canada. But there is evidence local transmission was occurring as early as March 2, after Sudbury man in his 50s tests positive for the virus he was believed to have contracted at a mining conference in Toronto Mar. 2 and 3.
MARCH 30
Tam says that, based on current scientific evidence, putting a mask on an asymptomatic person is “non beneficial.” “What we worry about is the potential negative aspects of wearing a mask,” including giving people a false sense of confidence. In Ontario, all people over the age of 70 are urged to self- isolate.
APRIL 1
Hajdu admits the federal government didn’t maintain adequate supplies of protective gear, including surgical masks in its emergency stockpile. “We likely didn’t have enough.”
APRIL 6
Tam recommends people wear a face mask while shopping or riding public transit, saying a non- medical mask can reduce the chance of respiratory droplets coming into contact with others or landing on surfaces.
APRIL 12
After telling Canadians “we all have to stay home,” Trudeau travels to Harrington Lake in Quebec to spend Easter with his family at their official country home, posing with wife, Sophie Grégoire Trudeau, and their children for an Instagram selfie.
MAY 4
Confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Canada surpass 60,000. Three- quarters of Ontario’s 1,300 deaths linked to outbreaks in long term care facilities. Across Canada, deaths in long term care now account for more than 80 per cent of the roughly 4,500 deaths from COVID-19.
MAY 5
Ontario Premier Doug Ford warns regional medical officers to “start picking up your socks” over testing delays. Some areas facing shortages of swabs.
MAY 7
Ontario hospitals begin resuming scheduled surgeries.
MAY 8
Fifth personal support worker in Ontario dies of COVID-19.
MAY 11
Quebec’s death toll surpasses 3,000 as schools reopen.
MAY 14
Canada surpasses 74,000 cases and 5,500 deaths related to COVID-19.