Public health asks Wuhan visitors to isolate themselves

Hamilton’s public health department is asking anyone who travelled to the centre of the novel coronavirus outbreak in China to stay isolated for14 days after their departure.

People who have returned from Hubei province, including the city of Wuhan, are also asked to report to health officials for followup.

In addition, travellers returning from mainland China, in general, are asked to keep an eye out for symptoms of the virus for 14 days and contact public health if they notice any.

Health officials, however, note there are no known local cases of the potentially deadly virus.

“The risk is still low here in Canada, but the likelihood of something more happening here is going up,’” said Dr. Elizabeth Richardson, the city’s medical officer of health.

Roughly 81,000 people around the globe have become sick with the coronavirus.

On Wednesday, provincial health officials confirmed a woman in Toronto who had recently travelled to Iran is Ontario’s fifth coronavirus patient.

Hamilton’s public health department fully implemented its “incident management system” Feb. 11 to “focus resources” on coronavirus work. The set of protocols is used for various emergencies, Richardson said.

Another element of local coronavirus preparations is the health sector emergency management committee, which includes public health, hospitals, paramedics and post-secondary institutions. The H1N1 virus of 2009 sparked the committee, Richardson said.

Hospital emergency departments have done “runthroughs” with paramedics to practise how a patient with coronavirus would be handled, said Dr. Bart Harvey, associate medical officer of health.

Public health is exploring other testing locations should the numbers ramp up, he said.

“Quite frankly, we’d rather overassess and overtest so that we don’t miss anybody,” Harvey said, noting prompt identification of people with the virus is crucial to prevent it from spreading.

To report symptoms, call public health at 905-546-2424.