Thompson Mayor Colleen Smook is going one step further than Sudbury public health recommends and isolating herself after a man who attended the same Toronto mining convention as her tested positive for the novel coronavirus.
“We have been advised to self-monitor,” Smook told the Thompson Citizen. “They say no need to isolate but I am staying home until I get more information as I did talk to a lot of people from Sudbury.”
A Sudbury man in his 50s who attended the conference, along with an estimated 23,000 other people, went to the emergency department at Health Sciences North in Sudbury March 7 after experiencing a cough and difficulty breathing. He was discharged and remains at home in self-isolation, the Financial Post reported.
The man was at the Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) 2020 convention in Toronto March 2 and March 3, said Dr. Penny Sutcliffe, a medical officer of health with public health in Sudbury and district. He is the first confirmed case of the coronavirus, also known as COVID-19 in the Sudbury and Manitoulin districts.
Politicians including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Natural Resources Minister Seamus O’Regan and Ontario Premier Doug Ford also attended the convention on the same day as the man, the Post reported. Convention participants were discouraged from shaking hands and advised by signs to use hand sanitizer and to avoid touching their faces with unwashed hands.
Smook was not the only Thompsonite to attend the PDAC convention. Communities Economic Development Fund (CEDF) CEO Oswald Sawh was also at the convention Feb. 29 and March 1 and says he is monitoring himself for symptoms but feels fine.
"Vale had a contingent at PDAC as we do every year given its importance to the mining industry, including representation from Thompson," said Tara Ritchie of Vale Manitoba Operations in an email. "Employees that attended PDAC are being advised to work from home until after the March break to satisfy the anticipated incubation period."
As of March 5, 97 COVID-19 tests had been completed in Manitoba but none had come back positive, Manitoba Health said.
The provincial government said March 10 that it is working to co-ordinate the purchase of $35 million worth of personal protective equipment to be prepared in case coronavirus shows up here but says the risk to Manitobans remains low.
