Toronto suffers double Sars blow
Toronto health chiefs yesterday announced a new cluster of 20 or more possible Sars cases in Toronto, along with two deaths.
This has led to the WHO placing the city back onto its list of infected countries. Furthermore, the US Centres for Disease Control also reinstated a travel warning on the city.
With the news, casualty wards throughout the city have now been put under special restrictions that limit access. In addition, hundreds of people have been advised to go into quarantine for ten days, in case they were exposed.
However, Canadian officials insisted there was no risk to the community, as the latest outbreak appeared to be limited to hospital patients, visitors and medical workers.
Furthermore, the spokesman for the health authority could not confirm that the illness was indeed Sars as they have not found any link between the latest and existing cases: ‘It’s still too early for any of us to say there is an epidemiological link.’
The latest Toronto deaths beings the worldwide death toll to 689.
In other Sars news, Both Hong Kong and Guangdong in China were lifted from the WHO list of Sars-related travel warnings, as the outbreaks are now firmly under control.
