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For Canadian Craig Lee, possibly the worst symptom of the new coronavirus came on a bus that took him to a Japanese quarantine centre.

Wrapped up in a winter coat, wearing a face mask and surrounded by other cruise-ship passengers, he felt decidedly claustrophobic.

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But through the 16 days after Lee first tested positive for the virus, he experienced no other ill effects — apart from being away from his wife and son in Richmond Hill, Ont.

The infectious disease that has now been classified as a pandemic is striking fear throughout the world, not least because it has caused thousands of deaths, mostly among the elderly and unwell.

There’s really no need to panic

But for some Canadians who contracted SARS-CoV-2, the pathogen has been little more than an inconvenience.

“We felt perfectly fine, perfectly normal,” said Rose Yerex, 66, of Port Dover, Ont., who like Lee was infected on the Diamond Princess ship that became an inadvertent incubator for the virus. “We would have had no idea.”