'I'm more concerned about fear than about the virus' says Medical Officer of Health

It was not unexpected. That is what Canada's Chief Public Health Officer Theresa Tam said about Canada's first presumptive case of the coronavirus. Now there are two presumptive cases, both in Toronto.

Dr. Penny Sutcliffe is the medical officer of health for Public Health Sudbury & Districts. She said it's important that everyone stays up to date.

"On our website as with many other sites within the public health system there are links to reputable sources . . . to make sure that people are informed because I'm a bit more concerned about fear than I am about the virus and what that could cause in terms of people's actions," said Sutcliffe.

There are still many unknowns about this new strain of coronavirus such as how easily it spreads from person to person and how serious it can be for someone who is infected.

What's different from SARS

"One thing, though, that is very different from SARS is that we do have a diagnostic test," said Sutcliffe. "When we first began with SARS we were not able to test and understand what was really going on."

Sutcliffe explained that now, preliminary results are available within roughly 48 hours and cases will be confirmed through the National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg.

Sutcliffe said that the preventionof respiratory diseases is something that everybody can do. "Staying home if we're ill, avoiding ill people, washing our hands, coughing and sneezing into a tissue all of these things we've heard about, including not touching your face, are critically important," she said.

Public health ready to respond, says MOH

Sutcliffe said that Public Health Sudbury & Districts has activated its emergency response plan, not because there is a local emergency, but to ensure that public health is ready and able to respond rapidly should anything occur in the area.

"The plan is all about systems and structures howwe communicate, who is responsible for what, and howwe ramp up across our agency so that we can respond in a coordinated fashion" she stated.

"That would mean having regular meetings, making sure that we're sharing information that comes from the province because it can come quite quickly."