The province’s third case of novel coronavirus has now been confirmed in London, despite the fact that the patient initially tested negative for the illness.
Ontario’s Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. David Williams told reporters on Friday afternoon that the latest case involves a woman in her 20’s, who returned from Wuhan, China on Jan. 23.
He said that the patient began to exhibit symptoms on Jan. 24 and attended the London Health Sciences Centre where she was assessed and tested for the virus before being sent home to recover in isolation.
That test was deemed negative by technicians at the Public Health Ontario laboratory; however Williams said that subsequent testing at the National Microbiology Lab in Winnipeg came back “just barely positive.”
The woman has since recovered from the virus and remains in isolation at home.
Officials say that she is a student at Western University but has not been on campus since returning to the country last week.
“This shows you the value of a laboratory network in Canada,” Williams said, noting that the overall risk to Ontarians remains low. “They are working back and forth to continue to ensure a quality lab system and response to this emerging disease issue in Canada. “
Officials are not releasing any information about the flight that the patient returned to Canada on because she was not symptomatic at the time and therefor wouldn’t have posed a transmission risk.
They say that the woman also wore a surgical mask for the entirety of her travels as well as when she attended a hospital in London, further reducing the risk of transmission.
“Every time she had contact with somebody in Canada she was wearing a mask. There are also disease factors here which are very encouraging,” Dr. Christopher Mackie, who is the medical officer of health for Middlesex-London, told reporters. “First of all the illness was very mild and recovery was quick - within two to three days she was fully recovered – and the lab parameters indicated that there was very low levels of the virus in the sample.”
Officials say that the Public Health Ontario laboratory has been conducting two separate tests on samples in order to identify cases of the novel coronavirus compared to the five tests that are performed by the National Microbiology Lab, potentially accounting for the discrepancy.
Vanessa Allen, who is the chief of medical microbiology at the Public Health Ontario laboratory, told reporters that in the wake of the delayed confirmation lab officials have retested all samples that they had previously received using a “more sensitive test” and have not unearthed any more confirmed cases.
“This is part of the science of the way that we develop rapid tests for a response to a new pathogen that we are just learning about,” she said. “We are really working in lockstep together as a national laboratory system to make sure we have the best test at any given time.”
The confirmation of the province’s third case of novel coronavirus comes hours after Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre announced that it had discharged a man in 50s, who had the first confirmed case of the virus in Canada.
In a statement the hospital said that the man is now recovering at home along with his wife, who had also contracted the virus and was Ontario’s second confirmed case.
She had already been recovering at home.
“Over the course of the week, his status continued to improve to the point where he no longer required in-patient care," the statement read. "Sunnybrook has liaised with Toronto Public Health, who will continue to monitor the patient in his home."
There have so far been 9,692 confirmed cases of the virus in China, including 213 deaths.
The number of confirmed cases in Canada, meanwhile, now stands at four.
