New Brunswick sought to assure the province’s residents on Wednesday that it is prepared to deal with the new coronavirus.
Dr. Jennifer Russell, New Brunswick’s chief medical officer of health, said that the province began to prepare as soon as it was alerted by Health Canada.
“The overall risk of transmission in Canada is low,” she said on Wednesday.
“We are prepared and… we are in this for the long haul.”
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Russell sought to assure the media that there are no confirmed or presumptive cases in the province.
“There have been no reported confirmed infections,” she said, directing residents to the province’s coronavirus website for more information and answers to any questions they may have.
Russell said her office remains in contact with health officials across Canada.
The first cases of the novel coronavirus appeared in the Chinese city of Wuhan in the final days of 2019. Since then, two cases have been confirmed in Toronto, while B.C. has announced one presumptive case.
The virus is thought to have originally been transmitted from an animal to a human, according to the World Health Organization, though health officials haven’t yet been able to identify which kind of animal started the outbreak.
Since then, WHO officials have confirmed the virus can be transmitted between people — meaning the virus can be passed from both people and animals.
The virus, currently known as 2019-nCoV, is a coronavirus, part of a family of viruses that include the common cold as well as SARS.
The novel coronavirus that is currently the focus of health officials’ attention has a number of symptoms, including fever, headache, runny nose, cough and difficulty breathing.
Symptoms of the new coronavirus are also common symptoms of influenza.
In more extreme cases, the new coronavirus can cause lower respiratory tract illnesses such as pneumonia or bronchitis.
Canada has not announced plans to evacuate its citizens from the regions in China affected by the novel coronavirus.
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However, other countries, including the U.S., are preparing to repatriate their citizens.
As of late Tuesday, there were nearly 6,000 confirmed cases of the virus, with 132 confirmed deaths.
More to come.
— With files from Global News’ Leslie Young and Corne Van Hoepen
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