Where Has Coronavirus Been Confirmed In Canada?

NOTE: This story is no longer being updated. It was most recently updated on Feb. 29, 2020. For more information about confirmed coronavirus cases in Canada, please visit our updated map .

As news of the new coronavirus spreads, so are reports of people across the country being tested.

But getting tested isn’t necessarily a confirmation of the virus. The symptoms include coughing, fever and difficulty breathing, so it’s likely that many people will get tested as a precaution. Public health officials report a case of the virus when it is “presumed” locally and when it is officially confirmed by the national testing laboratory in Winnipeg.

The novel coronavirus is believed to have originated in Wuhan, China.  Canadian public health officials maintain that the risk of contracting the disease is still pretty low here. 

Ontario: 8 confirmed cases, 3 resolved

Canada’s first case  of the 2019 novel coronavirus was “presumed confirmed” in Toronto on Jan. 25. 

The man from Toronto, who is in his mid-50s, was tested days after returning from Wuhan, where he had been 14 days prior to becoming ill. His case was confirmed in Winnipeg a day after he was provincially tested. The patient was treated in an isolated “negative pressure” room at Toronto’s Sunnybrook hospital .

Health officials say the man had shown mild symptoms on his flight back. The public health agency has been tracking down those onboard that same flight, who travelled from Guangzhou, China, to Toronto aboard China Southern Airlines. The man was discharged on Jan. 31 after his condition improved.

On Jan. 27, a second patient tested positive for the virus — the first patient’s wife. She also arrived in Toronto with her husband from Wuhan and placed herself in self-isolation.

On Jan. 31, officials announced a woman in her 20s in London, Ont., had caught the virus after visiting the affected area in China, bringing the total number of confirmed infections in the province to three. 

On Feb. 21, officials announced that the three previous cases were resolved, meaning the patients had recovered and were no longer infectious.

On Feb. 23, a Toronto woman in her 20s was presumed positive. A day later, Ontario health officials confirmed the case was a “low positive” and initially came back as borderline, or inconclusive, adding her illness was mild. 

Officials said she went to a local hospital with a cough, after travelling back from China on Feb. 21. The woman was sent home to self-isolate and the province said it’s unlikely she’s infectious.

A fifth case in Ontario was reported on Feb. 26, two days after a woman in her 60s visited Toronto’s Sunnybrook hospital and alerted staff that she had recently travelled to Iran, where the number of cases have been skyrocketing. The woman was sent home to be in self-isolation.

On Feb. 27, provincial health officials confirmed a sixth coronavirus case in Ontario. A man in his 60s, who is the husband of Ontario’s fifth case, tested positive for COVID-19. He is currently in self-isolation in the Toronto area. 

The province’s seventh coronavirus case was reported on Feb. 28. A man in his 50s, who recently visited Iran, arrived in Toronto on Feb. 26, officials say. He was left in self-isolation after receiving treatment at Toronto’s Sunnybrook hospital.

An eighth case was confirmed in the province on Feb. 28: a man in his 80s with a travel history to Egypt. He arrived in Toronto on Feb. 20 and went to the Scarborough Health Network’s General Hospital’s emergency department about a week later. Officials said he was isolated as he was tested for COVID-19 and discharged the same day feeling well and went home, where he remains.

On Feb. 29, the province said three more people tested positive for the virus. A 34-year-old woman with a travel history to Iran has been put in self-isolation. A 51-year-old woman who returned from Iran on Feb. 22 tested positive and so did her 69-year-old husband, who has no recent travel history to Iran. They are both in self-isolation.

Ontario is keeping track of all novel coronavirus cases here.

British Columbia: 4 confirmed cases, 4 resolved

On Jan. 28, health officials said a Vancouver-area man in his 40s was presumed to have the virus. The man works regularly in China and had been in Wuhan in the 14 days prior to becoming sick. He showed symptoms within 24 hours of returning. On Feb. 19, officials confirmed that the man had fully recovered and was no longer in isolation.

On Feb. 4, a woman in her 50s from the Vancouver-area was presumed to have the virus. The province’s chief medical officer, Dr. Bonnie Henry, said the woman was hosting people from the Wuhan area.

The woman’s guests, who are still in Vancouver, were quarantined and tested. The woman was in self-isolation at home where Henry said she is in stable condition and being actively monitored.

On Feb. 6, Henry confirmed two of the guests, a man and a woman, were also presumed positive for the virus.

Officials are confident one of the newly diagnosed people is the source of the virus in that household, she said, adding he’s a young, healthy man who had a very mild illness and did not seek medical attention.

All the people in the household are isolated in a home and being monitored by the Vancouver Coastal Health authority, she said. 

On Feb. 14, officials announced a woman in her 30s who had returned from Shanghai, China, in the past week through Vancouver’s airport had been presumed confirmed for the disease.

She travelled home by car, wore a mask on the plane and contacted health officials when she had symptoms of an illness.

The woman is in isolation at home, as are her close contacts.

A sixth case was diagnosed on Feb. 20 after a woman in her 30s returned to the province from Iran. Henry said the woman’s case is relatively mild and a number of her close contacts have already been put in isolation.

On Feb. 24, a seventh case of the novel coronavirus was diagnosed in B.C., this time affecting a man in his 40s who was in close contact with the province’s sixth case.

On Feb. 29, the province announced their eighth case. A woman in her 60s who had travelled to Tehran, Iran to B.C. was presumed confirmed. She had symptoms a few days after arriving.

B.C. Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry said the woman’s case is “relatively mild” and she’s in self-isolation at home.

B.C. is keeping track of their novel coronavirus cases here.

Quebec: 1 presumed case

On Feb. 27, Quebec public health officials reported the province’s first presumptive case of the new coronavirus.

Health Minister Danielle McCann announced that the patient, a woman from the Montreal region, had returned from Iran.

Officials said the woman visited a clinic with minor symptoms. The tests for coronavirus were conducted the day after her return to Canada.

“While the person was being cared for, all precautionary measures were put in place,” McCann said. “She did not require hospitalization, so she is currently in isolation, alone, at her home.”

Health officials said that apart from visiting the clinic where she was diagnosed, the woman’s contacts in Montreal were essentially limited to her immediate family, who are also in isolation. The patient did not take public transit and was not in a workplace, McCann said.

Quebec is keeping track of their novel coronavirus cases here.

What does a ‘presumed’ case mean?

A “presumed” case means that the patient has tested positive at a local laboratory, but no cases are “officially” confirmed until a second test at the National Microbiology Laboratory, a section of the National Collaborating Centre For Infectious Diseases . The Canadian government is keeping track of all cases on this website.

With files from The Canadian Press