A man in his 80s is Canada’s latest case of coronavirus.
Ontario Chief Medical Officer Dr. David Williams announced the news Friday, saying the man presented himself at Scarborough General Hospital Thursday, with a travel history to Egypt.
Another man, in his 50s, visited Sunnybrook’s emergency department Tuesday with symptoms of the respiratory disease, also known as COVID-19.
Both patients were treated and released the same day, and remain in self-isolation.
The man, Williams said, has recent travel history to Iran.
Ontario’s latest two patients — diagnosed earlier this week — likewise had recently returned from Iran.
On Friday, the World Health Organization raised their coronavirus risk assessment to “very high” globally as the number of cases spike worldwide.
“The continued increase in the number of cases, and the number of affected countries over the last few days are clearly of concern,” Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director general of the World Health Organization said at a Friday morning press conference in Geneva.
Over the past 24 hours, China reported 329 new cases of the disease — the lowest number of new cases in more than a month.
Total number of cases in China now sits at 78,959, with 2,791 deaths.
Elsewhere in the world, 4,351 cases and 67 deaths have been reported in 49 countries
Since Thursday, new cases were reported in Denmark, Estonia, Lithuania, Netherlands and Nigeria — all with links to Italy, while 97 cases are linked to Iran.
Nation’s Chinatowns paying the price
Most of Calgary’s councillors had lunch at a restaurant in Chinatown this week to try to help reduce fears about the coronavirus.
Businesses in Chinatowns across Canada have reported a drop in activity since COVID-19 hit China at the end of December.
At Ho Wan Restaurant in Calgary, the owners’ son, Jason Zhang, said business is down about 70%.
“People are not coming out very much,” he said. “It was the slowest Family Day I’ve seen.”
There have been no cases of COVID-19 in Alberta, but there are 13 confirmed cases in Ontario and British Columbia combined. Around the world, about 83,000 people have become ill with the virus. The World Health Organization reported cases in at least 37 countries outside of China.
