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New Canadian coronavirus patient never went to China, but had visited Iran
- Health authorities say latest case could be ‘indicator that there’s more widespread transmission’
- Woman in her 30s is the ninth person in Canada to contract the disease
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Canadian health authorities have announced what they called a “sentinel event” with the detection of the new coronavirus in a woman who had never travelled to China.
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The woman instead had recently returned to British Columbia from Iran, which has reported just five cases of the disease. Two of those patients have died.
The infection of the woman is the sixth case detected in BC, and the ninth in Canada.
The woman in her 30s lives in the Fraser Health region outside Vancouver, provincial health officer Dr Bonnie Henry said.
Henry told a press conference in Victoria late on Thursday that the case was a “sentinel event”, as a possible “indicator that there’s more widespread transmission”.
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Henry said an international investigation would ensue to “try to understand where the exposure occurred”. The case was “clearly a bit unusual … travel to Iran is something new [among Canadian infections]”.
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