The first “presumptive” case of coronavirus in Canada has been identified at Toronto’s Sunnybrook hospital, Ontario’s chief medical officer of health said Saturday.

A 50-year-old man, who returned from a trip to Wuhan, China, on Wednesday, called 911 the next day and was taken by ambulance to Sunnybrook with a fever and cough. Tests came back positive for coronavirus on Saturday and the man is now being treated in isolation in a “negative pressure” room at the hospital.

Officials described the man’s illness as “mild” and said he was in stable condition, showing early signs of improvement.

Emergency and medical workers were aware of the patient’s travel history and took all precautions to prevent the spread of the virus, said Dr. David Williams, the chief medical officer.

“The risk to Ontarians is still low,” he told a press conference at Queen’s Park on Saturday.

Sunnybrook hospital remains open and continues to operate normally. In a statement Saturday, the hospital assured the public that it is safe for all patients and visitors.

Heath officials around the world are working to contain the coronavirus, known as 2019-nCoV, which as of late Saturday had infected nearly 2,000 people and led to 56 deaths in China, where it originated. Despite its rapid spread, as of Saturday the virus had not been declared an international public health emergency by the World Health Organization.

Toronto is well prepared for an outbreak, officials said, noting the province and Toronto Public Health are collaborating using protocols developed after the SARS outbreak more than a decade ago.

“The system is working,” Williams said. “People did what they were supposed to do.”

Dr. Jerome Leis, Sunnybrook’s medical director of infection prevention and control, noted the patient showed some early signs of improvement on Saturday.

“We know that the patients who do get worse, that can be after a few days, and so we’re still providing active medical care and the patient remains (quarantined),” he said.

The Toronto man’s diagnosis was confirmed by a local laboratory, but the coronavirus cannot be officially confirmed without a second test at the National Collaborating Centre for Infectious Diseases in Winnipeg.

Toronto Public Health is investigating every place the patient may have visited and any people he came in contact with, said Dr. Eileen de Villa, Toronto’s medical officer of health.

“We have somebody who’s had very little external contact,” she said. “Our focus is to understand who might have been exposed to this individual and in what sorts of settings this individual has been so we can determine who might have been exposed and who is at risk for further illness.”

The coronavirus is not easily transmitted between people, said Dr. Barbara Yaffe, Ontario’s associate chief medical officer of health, adding that the members of the patient’s household have been put into “self-isolation” and are being monitored for signs of infection.

The patient flew from Wuhan to Guangzhou, and from there to Toronto. Public officials are working to identify the passengers who sat within three rows of him on those flights.

De Villa said the patient took a private vehicle from the airport to his home and did not use public transit. His wife, who travelled with him, currently has no symptoms, Williams said.

All travellers from China are being screened for infection at airports in Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal, with airline staff and customs and immigration officers participating in the effort.

Chinese authorities have quarantined the area around Wuhan, in central Hubei province, shutting down transportation in and out of more than a dozen cities collectively home to more than 50 million people.

Ontario Health Minister Christine Elliott urged the public to continue taking normal precautions to avoid flus and colds, including hand washing and coughing into one’s sleeve.

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“We have been actively monitoring to quickly detect and contain any cases of the Wuhan coronavirus. I want to assure all Ontarians that … the system is working,” she said.

“Ontarians can rest assured that the province’s integrated health-care system today is far more prepared to respond to any potential health risks than in the past,” said Elliott. “We will continue to diligently monitor this issue to ensure that Ontario remains prepared to identify, contain and treat any additional cases of this virus.”

Many of those infected by the coronavirus will have a very mild form of the disease, said Dr. Peter Donnelly, president and CEO of Public Health Ontario.

“Many people in China probably don’t even know they have it, haven’t even sought medical care. Or if they have sought medical care, have recovered quite quickly,” he said.

Calling the situation “very different” from the SARS outbreak, which killed 44 people in Toronto in 2003, Donnelly said that this time the virus has been identified and there’s a fast and reliable test for it.

“That really is a game changer, because it means that you can very quickly find out whether people have this or not,” he said. “These are the tools you need to control this and to stop its spread.”

In a statement, Mayor John Tory said “the risk to residents continues to remain low.”

“Our front-line health-care workers are the best in the world and have procedures in place to keep people safe,” Tory added.

Yaffe said that because confirmation of the case came only Saturday afternoon, public health teams were still in the early hours of their work.

“We are continuing our investigative work and expect that we will have further updates,” she said.

The public is being asked to visit a dedicated website at ontario.ca/coronavirus for updates.

Cases of the coronavirus have been confirmed in almost every Chinese province, and it has now spread to many other parts of the world.

Australia and Malaysia reported their first cases Saturday — four each — and Japan its third. France confirmed three cases Friday, the first in Europe, and the U.S. identified its second, a woman in Chicago who had returned from China. The viral illness has also been confirmed in Thailand, South Korea, Singapore and Vietnam.

Hong Kong chief executive Carrie Lam declared a health emergency, closing schools until mid-February. A number of Lunar New Year events were cancelled.

With files from Ilya Bañares and Star wire services

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