Sick woman at Winnipeg airport 'not a coronavirus case,' Premier Brian Pallister says

The person who was taken from a WestJet flight at Winnipeg's airport and sent to hospital Thursday does not have coronavirus, Premier Brian Pallister said Friday morning.

"It's not a coronoavirus case," Premier Brian Pallister said in response to questions at a news conference.

The passengerwas helped off the plane from Vancouverby paramedics and, with a mask on her face, wheeled in a stretcherto an ambulance that took her to a hospital, after she told crew she had a medicalissue, airports authority spokesperson Tyler MacAfee said.

It all went according to plan, said Dr. Brent Roussin, Manitoba's chief provincial public health officer.

As concerns about the COVID-19coronaviruscontinue togrow,health officialsare keeping a close eye on the situation and working closely with agencies like the Winnipeg Airports Authority, he said.

"We learned a lot from SARS and from pandemic influenza here, so a lot of our preparations have built upon those lessons [of the past]," Roussin said.

Provincial officials wereat the airport two weeks ago "preparing for any type of scenarios,"he said.

That included creating protocols to deal with patients who exhibitflu-like symptoms and identify anyone whose travel history includes countries impacted by theinfectious disease now known asCOVID-19.

"And once that is found out, a mask would be put on anyone with concerning symptoms,"Roussinsaid. "So we have protocols in place and the steps were taken properly in this."

The plane, whichwas scheduled to continue on to Toronto,was delayed for almost two hours.A WestJet representative said the aircraft was wiped down and sanitized.

MacAfeewouldn't discuss any specifics of the protocols that have been established "because they're evolving over time as new information is gathered."

However, he did say the airports authority has been meeting with many stakeholders from the Canadian Border Services Agency to airline partners and health officials "to make sure that we're doing the right things."

As for how everything worked out with Thursday's sick passenger,MacAfeesaid he's waiting for afull debrief.

"I'm not sure we kind of have a final decision on this, but I think what's important is that we we have a plan in place and we're continuing to work with that. It's going to continue to evolve over time."

At this time there are no laboratory confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Manitoba.

So far, 38 people in Manitoba have been tested for COVID-19 but the results haveall come back negative.