Health officials urge vigilance in wake of coronavirus
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Local health-care officials remain vigilant now that the coronavirus has reached Ontario.
Officials with the Brant Community Healthcare System are asking all patients, staff and visitors to Brantford General Hospital and the Willett urgent care centre in Paris who have a fever, cough, difficulty breathing, pneumonia and kidney failure to immediately identify themselves to the triage nurse or registration staff. Visitors who have travelled outside of Canada in the past two weeks are also asked to identify themselves to the triage nurse.
The Brant County health unit says anyone who is ill and planning to visit a hospital or urgent care centre should call ahead and inform medical staff of their symptoms prior to arrival. And those feeling ill and calling 911 for paramedics should inform the dispatcher of their symptoms.
“We have not had anyone present themselves to the hospital whom we have quarantined with the novel coronavirus,” Martin Ruaux, BCHS vice-president, clinical, and chief nurse executive, said Monday. “We remain vigilant and ask those coming to the hospital to do the same.”
Ruaux said that, like many other viruses, including the flu, the coronavirus is spread through droplets.
“Washing hands, avoiding contact with those who are sick and practising proper cough and sneeze etiquette remains the best way to avoid transmission of the virus.”
The healthcare system’s leadership team and hospital experts are meeting regularly and are in contact with the Ministry of Health, the health unit and the Local Health Integration Network to ensure maximum preparedness should a person show up at the hospital with a suspected case of the virus.
On Monday, Dr. David Williams, Ontario’s chief medical officer, confirmed a second case of the virus that involves the wife of Ontario’s first victim, a man in his 50s, who is in Sunnybrook Hospital in Toronto. The man’s family members have been in “self-isolation” since he returned last week from the east central Chinese city of Wuhan.
The highly contagious strain first emerged in late 2019 in Wuhan. It quickly spread and, by Jan. 9, Chinese officials confirmed the first death from the virus. As of Monday, 81 people had died out of a 2,876 confirmed cases worldwide.
The risk of contracting the disease remains low for Canadians, said Dr. Elizabeth Urbantke, Brant County’s medical officer of health.
“We are continuing to monitor the situation in conjunction with our health-care partners locally, provincially and nationally,” Urbantke said. “We’re reminding people to take the same precautions they should already be taking at this time of year – coughing and sneezing into a tissue, avoiding contact with those who are ill and rigorous hand washing.”
Urbantke was on the medical front-lines in 2003 when the severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, broke out and spread to more than 20 countries including Canada.
“We learned a lot from SARS and we’re much better prepared for something like this now.”
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