Public health investigators are tracing the steps of a woman who returned to Canada from Iran nine days before going to Sunnybrook hospital with emerging COVID-19 symptoms, while the GTA’s Persian community calls on Ottawa to help Iranian-Canadians trapped in Tehran amid an outbreak there.

“All Canadians are worried, but I think we’re very, very worried about our friends and family, especially if they’re old,” Pouyan Tabasinejad, vice-president of the Iranian Canadian Congress, said of a community still reeling from the devastating Ukrainian airline crash in January.

At least 19 COVID-19 deaths have been reported in Iran, which has the highest death toll outside China. Many of the cases have been in the capital city of Tehran, but there are fears people fleeing to other areas will spread the virus throughout the country.

“It’s a really difficult time right now,” Tabasinejad said.

The Iranian Canadian Congress has also put out an urgent call to the federal government to repatriate Iranian-Canadians, as was done with Canadian citizens stuck in China and on the Diamond Princess cruise ship in Japan.

The non-profit organization said it has received dozens of emails from people trapped by cancelled flights and sealed local borders. The situation is complicated by the fact Canada has not had diplomatic presence in Iran since 2012.

Tabasinejad is also concerned about the high number of deaths in Iran compared to the number of reported cases, and says recent sanctions have strained the health-care system. From face masks to hand sanitizer, “everything is in short supply,” he said.

The new Toronto case was revealed as health authorities brace for person-to-person transmission in Canada.

“You want to make sure you’re planning and prepared. That is key,” Dr. David Williams, Ontario’ s chief medical officer of health, said Wednesday amid widening concerns about the rapid spread of the new coronavirus around the world, including troublesome clusters in Iran and Italy.

Toronto public health staff were interviewing the patient, identified only as a woman in her 60s, to determine what risks she may have posed to others between her return from Iran on Feb. 15 and her trip to Sunnybrook hospital in a mask on Monday.

“This is careful work that needs to be done in a very detailed fashion so that we can come up with an appropriate risk assessment and inform the public,” Dr. Eileen de Villa, Toronto’s chief medical officer, told a news conference at Queen’s Park.

It’s not yet known how widely the woman circulated in the Toronto area, including whether she went to work or attended large social functions. She was sent home from Sunnybrook to self-isolate with two members of her family.

“It’s not surprising to learn of this news as we have a very mobile population with a lot of international travel, so it’s quite likely that we will continue to see more people presenting with symptoms and a travel history to affected areas in the world,” she said.

That is why the Toronto agency is working with the province and other levels of government to develop a “plan for the potential of local spread,” de Villa added, maintaining the risk in Ontario remains “low,” with no person-to-person transmission so far.

The airline and flight number of the woman were not revealed. She went to Sunnybrook with a cough, sore throat, body aches and occasional fever after informing hospital staff she was on the way so they could take precautions.

“All the protocols were followed, all the infection prevention and control procedures were in place,” said de Villa.

Toronto public health staff will be reaching out to the woman’s contacts if deemed necessary.

Williams said it’s time to step up readiness as the new coronavirus that originated in China has spread to dozens more countries. There are growing expectations the World Health Organization could declare a pandemic, meaning the virus never before seen in humans is spreading out of control on a global scale.

“We have been preparing from day one,” he acknowledged, citing China, Japan, Hong Kong, Italy, Iran, Singapore and South Korea as countries of concern.

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New measures include ramping up Ontario’s capacity to test the nose and throat swabs used to detect the virus. The provincial public health lab has been doing 30 to 40 tests daily and can perform 1,000 but that may not be enough if a “large cluster” of cases suddenly develops, Williams added.

“What happens if we have to go to 2,000 or 3,000? How are we going to prepare for that? You’ve got to do that preparation now.”

Should a large cluster of cases develop — as has happened in areas of northern Italy that have now been cordoned off — Williams would not rule out recommending closing off whole communities in Ontario if self-isolation or mandatory quarantines don’t work. However, he noted, any such potential measure is “way down the road.”

As of Wednesday morning, Ontario has 14 people awaiting test results for the new coronavirus.

In Ottawa, deputy chief public health officer Dr. Howard Njoo told the Commons health committee late Wednesday that the risk of disease spread in Canada remains low, with just seven confirmed cases in B.C. and five in Ontario.

Nine of the 12 confirmed cases have been traced to travellers from China or their contacts, and three have been traced to travellers from Iran, which reported a surprisingly large outbreak this week.

Canadian authorities are still in “containment mode” of the outbreak, said Njoo, but are trying to “sensitize the public” that things could change.

“We’re also starting to prepare for a possible pandemic,” he said. “So we can’t do this with our eyes closed and not recognize what might happen weeks and months from now, which has nothing to do specifically with what’s happening in Canada but what’s happening internationally.”

Liberal MPs expressed concern about the readiness of Canada’s health system to accommodate a surge in infections, let alone a pandemic.

Liberal MP Marcus Powlowski, a Thunder Bay emergency physician who worked through the H1N1 and SARs outbreaks, asked Njoo whether the Public Health Agency or the provincial health systems had the money and other resources they need to gear up for or deal with a pandemic.

Njoo appeared to surprise Powlowski when he could not answer how ready the provinces are, saying it is a provincial responsibility.

He added that Ottawa has “what we call surge capacity support. Should a province require additional support, maybe equipment in our emergency stockpile system, we can meet that request.”

Conservative MP Matt Jeneroux challenged Njoo about whether Canada’s borders should have been closed to travellers from China at an earlier stage.

Njoo insisted that closing borders has “never proven effective in terms of stopping” a viral outbreak.

COVID-19 has killed more than 2,700 people, mostly in China, and infected more than 80,000 around the world.