In a press conference on Tuesday afternoon, provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry confirmed BC’s second coronavirus case.
While officials are waiting for the official test results from the National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg, the case is expected to be confirmed.
At the press conference, Dr. Henry confirmed that the patient is in the Coastal Health Region of BC. The first case was also in the same region.
Henry told reporters that the second patient, a woman, had family visiting from Hubei province in China. Hubei province houses Wuhan, where the virus started.
The woman is in isolation at home and her family members are still in Canada, Henry said.
With three confirmed cases in Ontario and now two in BC, there are five confirmed cases in Canada.
See more: British Columbia’s first case of coronavirus confirmed in Vancouver region
BC’s first case was confirmed on January 27th. Speaking in a press conference at the time, Dr. Henry said the province expected more cases in the coming days.
“I would be absolutely surprised if we did not have more cases,” Dr. Henry had said on January 28th.
In Tuesday’s statement, she stressed that the risk faced by British Columbians is still “extremely low,” but that the province will keep the public informed about future diagnoses.
“You will hear from us if people have this disease and have been diagnosed with it here. We are doing everything we can to protect people in British Columbia.”
At the time of writing, there are 20,000 cases of coronavirus in China, with 424 fatalities in the country.
This is a breaking news story. More to come.
