British Columbia has tested 114 samples for the new coronavirus that's behind an outbreak in China, but there has only been one positive result, the provincial health officer said today (Jan. 31).
Dr. Bonnie Henry said health officials are now at a critical phase in the response to the coronavirus after China took restrictive measures to try and control the outbreak.
"That will help protect us as well as help protect other parts of China," she said. "Having said that, those measures were taken really about 10 days ago and we are now at the point where people have travelled here to B.C. and to Canada who are incubating this disease may start showing symptoms."
Henry said new data from China shows the incubation period is, for the most part, a maximum of 10 days. The province has been using 14 days "to give ourselves a bit of a buffer zone," Henry said, but the average incubation period is about five days.
B.C. has taken a "vigilant" approach to the coronavirus and has done a high number of tests because "we have a very low threshold for testing," Henry said.
"We will be continuing that, particularly for the next week or so," she added.
Henry said the figures are based on results as of Thursday (Jan. 30).
The positive result was announced earlier this week by Henry, who said the virus was confirmed in a man in his 40s after a business trip to China.
The man returned home to the Vancouver area last week and had symptoms about 24 hours later.
Officials said he was doing well at home.
The patient spent most of his time in the port city of Guangzhou and visited Wuhan, the city at the centre of an outbreak in that country.
China has counted nearly 9,700 confirmed cases with a death toll of 213.
The vast majority of the cases have been in Hubei province. China has placed more than 50 million people in the region under virtual quarantine.
The man who returned to Vancouver contacted a primary health-care provider on Sunday to say he had travelled to Wuhan. He had no symptoms on the plane back to Vancouver.
Canada has three confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus.
Canadian public health officials say the risk of contracting the illness in this country remains low.
