Toronto deaths push SARS toll to 6
Also, local infectious diseases expert quarantined
FROM CANADIAN PRESS:
Ontario health officials reported two more SARS deaths today, bringing the Canadian death toll from the disease to six.
Dr. James Young, Ontario's commissioner of public safety, expressed his condolences to the two families at a briefing.
One of the deaths occurred Monday night, and the other patient died Tuesday morning. Both were in the Toronto area.
Dr. Colin D'Cunha, Ontario's chief medical officer of health, said both patients were elderly individuals and clearly linked to the Scarborough Grace cluster of cases in Toronto.
Across Canada, the number of suspected and probable cases of SARS is in the vicinity of 130, most of them in the Toronto area, and emananating from Scarborough Grace, where one of the first Canadian SARS patients was treated.
In another disturbing development Tuesday, Dr. Donald Low, an infectious diseases expert who has taken part in daily briefings to media in Toronto, is now in isolation.
Earlier today, the city's Hospital for Sick Children reduced to three from five the number of children listed as possible cases.
"We have two that I've called probable and are being treated as probable and one that is a suspect case," Dr. Stanley Read of Sick Kids told CFRB Radio.
Of the three suspect and probable cases of SARS, Read said two are children of health care workers and the third is reported to have returned recently from southeast Asia.
All three were said to be in good condition and Read said proper containment procedures were in place when the children arrived.
In British Columbia, 40 people near Vancouver were told to go into quarantine earlier this week when it was discovered the province's second probable SARS case had gone to a health clinic in the suburb of Coquitlam while she was ill.
A SARS clinic was being opened today in Vancouver.
Health officials say the walk-in facility with x-ray capability will ease the strain on hospital emergency wards and put people's fears to rest.
Quarantine officers are also being trained to help screen all flights from Asia into Vancouver International Airport.
New Brunswick experienced a run on face masks after that province revealed over the weekend that a school principal who recently returned from China was under observation as a suspect case.
The province's chief medical officer looked alarmed when asked at a news conference whether the province would supply residents with protective masks.
"This is an example of unnecessary fear, undue anxiety and a misinterpretation of the situation in the province," Dr. Wayne MacDonald said.