TORONTO - Ontario health officials say there are four more cases of the new coronavirus in the province:
https://news.ontario.ca/mohltc/en/2020/03/ontario-confirms-new-positive-cases-of-covid-19-1.html
The latest diagnoses bring the number of cases of COVID-19 in Ontario to 15, though three have since been resolved.
Officials say the four patients are all from the Greater Toronto Area, and all had recently travelled.
They say one of the cases is a Toronto man in his 50s who lives in Vaughan, Ont., whose brother was also diagnosed with the virus after being in Iran.
Another of the cases is a man from York Region in his 40s, who recently returned from Iran and whose wife was diagnosed with COVID-19 yesterday.
The third is a man in his 50s who got back from Iran a week ago and went to hospital on Friday.
The fourth patient is a woman in her 70s from Newmarket, and was recently in Egypt with another person who was recently diagnosed with the virus.
All of the patients are in self-isolation.
This comes after three other cases were reported in the province earlier this weekend:
The first of those cases is a 34-year-old woman who came to MacKenzie Health in York Region with mild symptoms on Thursday, after returning to Toronto the day before from Iran.
York Region Medical Officer of Health Dr. Karim Kurji explained they are also reaching out to people who were in proximity to the woman, who was on three flights and one GO bus.
The flights include the business class section of Qatar Airways flight QR 483 and QR 163, Air Canada flight AC 883, while the GO bus was the #40 EB sitting on the upper deck.
She got on the bus on Wednesday, February 26 at approximately 3:55 p.m., from Pearson Airport to the Richmond Hill Centre Terminal.
"Eventually we will be getting the flight manifest," he said, adding however in these cases, "the individauls that we find usually do not develop symptoms."
As for the GO bus, there is much less risk, he said.
"There is more ventiliation, the period of travel is much less in time and there may be individuals who were boarding and unboarding the bus," he said. "We would like though these individuals to get in touch with us."
Passengers should contact 1-800-361-5653 Monday to Sunday between 8:30 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. for further assessment."
The other two cases are a 51-year-old woman and her 69-year-old husband, who tested postiive at Lakeridge Health Ajax Pickering.
The woman returned to Toronto from Iran on February 22 and went to the Ajax clinic on Friday with a cough, body aches and chills, where she was masked and isolated.
Her husband had a cough, but did not travel to Iran.
All three were discharged and put in self-isolation.
"At this time the virus is not circulating locally," a statement from the government says. "However, given the global circumstances, Ontario is actively working with city and health partners to plan for the potential of local spread. The province continues to carefully monitor this situation and encourage residents to stay informed by regularly reviewing credible information sources."
Ontario public health officials will provide an update on Monday.
Once again, the original three cases of the 15 have been resolved, after the patients tested negative in tests 24 hours apart.
With files from Lucas Meyer and Heather Seaman
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