First community transmission case of COVID-19 in B.C. among eight new cases
Posted March 5, 2020 3:44 pm.
Last Updated March 5, 2020 11:37 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) — The first community transmission case of COVID-19 has been reported in B.C. in the eight new presumptive cases announced Thursday.
At least one woman from the Vancouver Coastal Health region had no known contact with infected persons and it is unclear where she got the virus from. Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry says she was identified through ongoing influenza testing, adding everyone being tested for the flu is also being tested for COVID-19.
Four of the new cases came in contact with one man in his 60s who recently came back from Iran.
“This is not surprising to us,” Henry says. “The first four of these cases are actually household contacts of a case that we announced last week and they had been under observation and monitoring and developed their symptoms while in isolation,” she explains.
One of the new cases is linked to the closure of two private post-secondary schools after a student visited with his father, who had tested positive for the virus after returning from Iran.
Then, another woman from Seattle was visiting family in the Fraser Health region and tested positive. The other two cases are people who recently travelled to Iran, developed symptoms and live together.
With spring break approaching, people are being warned not to travel outside of Canada.
“International travel right now is a risk. And people coming back right now from outside Canada, we really do ask them to be very cognizant of their own symptoms and to have a low threshold, even if they just have the sniffles, to stay home and stay away from others, see how it evolves,” she says.
If someone thinks they may have been in contact with someone who has COVID-19 or recently came back from an area with the virus, Henry asks them to call 811 to determine how to be assessed and cared for properly.
The provincial total is now 21 with dozens more cases nationwide. There are more than 80 countries with cases of the virus and more than 90,000 infected worldwide.
