B.C. says woman who travelled from Iran is the province’s eighth case of COVID-19

VANCOUVER — The B.C. government has confirmed a new presumptive positive case of the new coronavirus, or COVID-19, in the Vancouver Coastal Health region.

Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry says the eighth case in the province is a woman in her 60s from Tehran, Iran, who travelled to B.C. to visit family and developed symptoms a few days after arriving.

Henry says the woman has a “relatively mild case” of the virus and she is in self-isolation at home, along with a “small number” of close contacts.

She says the public health investigation is ongoing, but the woman was aware of the virus spreading in Iran and she travelled to a clinic while wearing a mask.

Henry added that the first four people who tested positive for the virus in B.C. have recovered and are doing well, while the other three people who tested positive are in stable condition and remain in isolation at home.

She says many of those people’s close contacts have finished their two-week quarantine period and there have been no new cases from within that group.

Health Minister Adrian Dix noted that more than a thousand people in B.C. have been tested for the virus, which is higher than other jurisdictions, including the entire United States.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published on Feb. 29, 2020.

The Canadian Press