Vancouver: Health officials in British Columbia say a man in his 40s is presumed to have coronavirus and is doing well as he recovers at home.
Dr. Bonnie Henry, the provincial health officer, says the man works regularly in China and lives in the Vancouver area.
She says the man has voluntarily isolated himself since returning to Canada last week and no members of his family have shown any symptoms as they are being monitored by health officials.
The government says the man began showing symptoms 24 hours after returning home. The majority of his most recent trip to China was spent in Wuhan, the city at the centre of an outbreak in that country.
He contacted a primary health-care provider on Sunday to notify them he had travelled to Wuhan and was experiencing symptoms before coming in for assessment and treatment.
The province expects to have tests results from the man’s case back from the National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg within 48 hours.
If confirmed, it would be the first case of coronavirus in B.C.
The provincial government says the risk of the virus spreading remains low.
“All necessary precautions are being taken to prevent the spread of infection,” a joint statement from Henry and Health Minister Adrian Dix says. “We have multiple systems in place to prepare for, detect and respond, in order to prevent the spread of serious infectious diseases in the province.”
It says the BC Centre for Disease Control has developed a diagnostic test for the new coronavirus and is working to ensure potential cases can be detected quickly and accurately.
China has confirmed more than 4,500 cases of a new form of coronavirus, with at least 106 deaths.
