Anyone who travelled to Hubei province in China asked to self-isolate

By GILLIAN SLADE on February 7, 2020.

gslade@medicinehatnews.com@MHNGillianSlade

Albertans who have travelled to China’s Hubei province are being asked to self-isolate themselves for 14 days.

Dr. Deena Hinshaw, chief medical officer of health, says Alberta is joining the rest of Canada in providing additional recommendations to the public out of an “abundance of caution” regarding coronavirus.

“With guidance from the public Health Agency of Canada and in alignment with other provinces and territories, effective today we are recommending that anyone who visited Hubei Province in the last 14 days consider self-isolating themselves until two weeks have passed since their last day in Hubei province,” said Hinshaw at a press conference on Thursday.

Self-isolation means staying home and away from others, she said. It means avoiding work, school, social events and other public gatherings. Hinshaw expects only a small group of Albertans to be impacted by this decision.

“To be clear travellers from any other parts of mainland China are not being asked to isolated themselves,” said Hinshaw, who suggests people in that category monitor themselves for possible symptoms and call HealthLink 811 if they have any concerns.

Hinshaw said information to schools and employers will going out from Alberta Health and that information is available on the government’s website. It is hoped employers will accommodate staff affected by allowing them to work remotely for the 14-day period, but each employer is going to have to determine what is reasonable.

After initial contact with someone who is self-isolating, to ensure they have the information they need, public health will not be monitoring them with “active daily phone calls,” said Hinshaw.

At the three airports with direct flights to China information about self-isolation is being provided to passengers who identify as having been in Hubei province, said Hinshaw.

“I want to stress once again that the risk to Albertans remains low,” said Hinshaw, noting there are currently no cases in the province.

The total number of cases diagnosed in Canada is five.

There is no data about the specific number of Albertans who have travelled to Hubei, said Hinshaw. Nationally there were about 70 people who were in Hubei in the past 14 days. It is not clear how many of those were planning to travel to Alberta.

Alberta continues to monitor new information about the virus and works closely with the Public Health Agency of Canada to assess the new evidence and if needed adjust our approach accordingly, said Hinshaw.

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