Doctors in Ontario are testing 62 people for possible coronavirus infection, up from 43 on Tuesday, with two new cases detected in British Columbia on Thursday.
Public health officials say that as of Wedneday morning, 62 people remain under investigation for possible coronavirus infection across Ontario, with eight of those presumptively ruled out by negative tests at Public Health Ontario’s lab in Toronto.
No one is fully ruled out until their specimens test negative at both the provincial lab in Ontario as well as the federal microbiology lab in Winnipeg.
So far, 169 people in the province have been tested, with 104 now confirmed to be free of the virus.
Three people, a couple in their 50s in Toronto, and ayoung female Western University student in London, have tested positive for the virus in Ontario.
All three Ontario patients are in good condition, recovering at home.
Association Ontario Medical Officer of Health Dr. Barbara Yaffe said that the people under testing right now had recent travel to China but were not in contact with any of the three people confirmed to have the virus in the province.
“They were not on the plane of the (confirmed) cases but they were obviously on a plane or near a person who was on a plane,” she said.
Ontario Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. David Williams said the majority of the current patients came to their attention because a local family doctor wanted them tested out of an extreme abundance of caution.
Two new presumptive cases of coronavirus have been identified in B.C., health officials said Thursday.
The patients, a man and a woman in their 30s, are both visiting from Hubei province, Dr. Bonnie Henry said. Both are linked to a woman who was diagnosed earlier this week.
Public health officials say all those under investigation are under some form of self-isolation at home or at a hospital.
Any persons suffering from upper respiratory illness and/or a fever, as well as recent travel history to the Hubei province of China, are investigated for possible infection.
Doctors previously said they expected the number of people under investigation would start to fall, as time continues to pass from when the Chinese government closed off Hubei province from the outside world, starting on Jan. 23.
Meanwhile, 176 people are on board Canada's first evacuation plane which has departed from virus-stricken Wuhan and is on its way to CFB Trenton where all occupants will be put in isolation for two weeks.
-with files from The Canadian Press
