Sudbury's health officials are taking a "hope for the best but prepare for the worst" approach when it comes to the coronavirus.
There is one confirmed case in Ontario, one presumptive case (the spouse of the confirmed case) and one confirmed case in B.C. as of today.
The Canadian government is now advising citizens against all travel to the Chinese province that’s at the centre of the outbreak, stepping up an earlier warning about the region.
While the risk of a coronavirus outbreak in Sudbury seems unlikely, health officials and their partner organizations are taking steps to ensure open lines of communication and preparedness in the event of a case of the virus in the community.
The health unit's emergency control group and the city's emergency response team both held meetings recently centred around getting organized and keeping an open line of communication to ensure that information about the virus is coming from accurate and credible sources.
Penny Sutcliffe, medical officer of health with Public Health Sudbury and Districts, attended both meetings and said that both teams are very much in "preparedness mode".
"We think about emergency response but there is no emergency that we are responding to right now," said Sutcliffe. "The best case scenario is that we're very busy getting ready for nothing, but we have to be responsible and plan for a reasonable worst case scenario."
The first cases of a novel coronavirus appeared in the Chinese city of Wuhan in the last days of 2019. The number of cases grew rapidly, up to nearly 3,000 as of Jan. 27 - mostly in China, but also around the world, including two cases in Ontario and one presumed case in B.C.
Sutcliffe explained that preparedness is paramount in these types of situations, stating "if we did have a case or contacts here and we look back, what would we wish in retrospect that we had done right now."
Public Health Sudbury and Districts has the same process in place with the recent cases of hepatitis A in Sudbury.
"It's scalable, it could be smaller or bigger, but when we anticipate or are responding to an event that we would expect to involve multiple players, we would have our emergency management systems so that we all put our day jobs on the side and focus on that," said Sutcliffe.
"It's really about getting organized around that."
Health Sciences North is one of the partners at the table when it comes to preparedness for the chance of an outbreak and are following the guidance of Sutcliffe and PHSD at this time.
"This includes working with Public Health Sudbury & Districts, the City of Greater Sudbury and other community partners and taking a co-ordinated approach to ensure we are ready to respond to this situation," said HSN in a statement on Monday.
"[HSN is] also actively screening patients who come to the hospital for fever, acute respiratory illness and pneumonia, as well as for any relevant exposure or travel history."
The hospital is advising anyone with symptoms that include fever, cough, or difficulty breathing to call their healthcare provider or TeleHealth Ontario before coming to the Emergency Department.
"As always, preventative measures such as careful handwashing, staying home when ill, not touching your face, and coughing or sneezing into a tissue, are the best defence against spreading illness," said the HSN statement.
With cases such as this, where a virus that has claimed numerous lives is being widely reported in the media, the levels of concern rise among members of the public and PHSD sees an uptick in the number of calls they field on day-to-day basis.
"We have been getting more calls, not overwhelming numbers but we have been getting more," said Sutcliffe. "It's very important that our staff be well-informed and are all using the same sources of information. It wouldn't be good to call public health and get three different responses from three different phone calls. We're developing resources for our staff and questions and answers for our staff so they can best respond to the needs of the public."
Public Health Sudbury and Districts has also updated their website (https://www.phsd.ca/) to include direct information from public health, while also providing credible sources of information for the public on the outbreak.
Sutcliffe explained that there is no way to tell how a virus such as this will evolve and where and if it will spread.
"If it could fizzle out, that would be great. We could find out that the virus mutates so that it's not so transmissable or virulant after all, or things could get worse," said Sutcliffe. "I'm hoping that it's the former and not the latter, but we need to be prepared for every eventuality."
