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“Always mention before going to see your healthcare provider that you have been travelling and now you have these symptoms which in the case of coronavirus start with cough, fever, and difficulty breathing,” said Shahab. “Then your health care provider will make sure that you’re seen in a way that doesn’t expose other patients, the proper testing is done.”

Treatment includes at home or in hospital isolation depending on the severity of the symptoms for up to two weeks, which is the time it is believed the Wuhan coronavirus is infectious.

For those who will be travelling to Wuhan or anywhere else in China in the future, Shahab recommends staying away from live animal markets (where the virus was first transmitted), washing your hands often, avoiding touching your face before washing your hands and staying away from people who are visibly ill.

If you become symptomatic while travelling, inform your flight crew as well as Canadian Border Services upon arrival to your next destination so an assessment can be done to determine if additional testing is needed. Travellers may be asked to delay their travels at their layover location until they are well again.

“January 25 is the Chinese New Year so traditionally within China there’s a lot of travel,” said Shahab. “Obviously Chinese authorities are very concerned because of that because they feel that may spread this coronavirus within China from Wuhan to other provinces and already there’s evidence of that.”

But Shahab couldn’t say how many people from Saskatchewan are typically travelling back and forth from China, especially since there are no direct flights from Canada to Wuhan.

“I know that the Public Health Agency does try to get estimates of the number of travellers from Canada,” he said. “Sometimes they’re able to estimate from specific provinces and we’ll wait for the information if that is easily available.”

jackerman@postmedia.com