Evidence of meeting #1 for Health in the 43rd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was cases.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Conservative
Chief Public Health Officer, Public Health Agency of Canada
Not just that, but if we go beyond.... Right now, let's say, WHO does not recommend travel bans, and any measures that a country is to take must not be out of proportion to the risk and must not inappropriately impact travel and trade. We are a signatory to the international health regulations and we'll be called to account if we do anything different.
On the Global Affairs side, you can ask them, because some of the criteria are more for safety and security reasons, rather than health. That is a different reason because of some of the extraordinary measures, in fact, that China has put in place to try to contain the spread. We've never seen this type of extraordinary measure in modern public health history. If you put everything on a standstill, you have to look at what the implications are.
Conservative
Len Webber Conservative Calgary Confederation, AB
Do you know of any indications that other countries have put a travel ban in place?
Chief Public Health Officer, Public Health Agency of Canada
Not countries, but I think there are three areas. I believe the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, for example, has put on a sort of block, but I believe there are three jurisdictions.
Conservative
Len Webber Conservative Calgary Confederation, AB
Okay.
I have another question. You talked about the 6,000 confirmed cases in China and the 133 deaths, and the five confirmed cases in the U.S. and the three here. Can you describe the demographics of these cases at all? Are women more susceptible, or men? Is there an age at which they are more susceptible, old or young? Are there any indications there?
Chief Public Health Officer, Public Health Agency of Canada
There have been very few imported cases. Overall, in terms of 100% of the cases, I don't think there is a very specific male-to-female ratio of note.
At the beginning, there was, when it was linked to a specific cluster in a particular market. There was a male preponderance in those cases, but I think right now not specifically. In the severe end of the spectrum, there are more people who are older, with underlying medical conditions, so that is a key observation.
Chief Public Health Officer, Public Health Agency of Canada
Just to add to that, though, about the exported cases, most of them have actually been relatively mild. There has been only one exported case that had a severe outcome.
Conservative
Len Webber Conservative Calgary Confederation, AB
I have a few more minutes here. Can I share my time with Tamara? She continues on the next round, so we could use those minutes.
Conservative
Tamara Jansen Conservative Cloverdale—Langley City, BC
I have been receiving many messages from a number of concerned parents who are permanent residents and whose children have travelled across the water. Let me read from one of these for you.
A mother here in Canada contacted me about her husband, who is a permanent resident, and her two-and-a-half-year-old baby, Cerena, who is a Canadian citizen. The father and the daughter are currently in China. Her husband is hospitalized with a suspected case of the virus and her daughter is in quarantine, though showing no symptoms.
The government isn't giving any answers to some really serious questions. I've had many people ask me this first one. Will permanent residents be eligible to get on that plane?
January 29th, 2020 / 5:55 p.m.
President, Public Health Agency of Canada
I think, Mr. Chair, again, that's a question we can't answer. I think it would be better directed to our colleagues at Global Affairs Canada, who are the ones having discussions with Chinese authorities.
Conservative
Tamara Jansen Conservative Cloverdale—Langley City, BC
You guys have no clue on that one. All right.
Next—
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Ron McKinnon
Actually, the time is up. We'll go now to Mr. Fisher for five minutes.
Liberal
Darren Fisher Liberal Dartmouth—Cole Harbour, NS
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
Folks, this is incredible. Thank you so much for this, and thank you not just for what you've done today, but for all you've done in the last few weeks.
Dr. Tam, I've heard your name a thousand times in the last few weeks, so thank you for the transparency and the information as this evolves. I appreciate all you've done. You've talked about all of the collaboration and the engagement with PT and the FPT advisory committee and also about us contributing to the vaccine effort. The minister is constantly engaging with her provincial counterparts.
What are we doing differently from other countries, or additionally, or are we following...? I appreciate that you're a special adviser to the World Health Organization. Are we doing anything different in Canada? Not since SARS, but are we doing anything to protect our citizens that's different from what the rest of the international world is doing?
Chief Public Health Officer, Public Health Agency of Canada
I think we are very much in line with similar countries. Right now, the World Health Organization is particularly worried about countries without capacities, particularly in the African region. I think the assessment of WHO as to whether it considers this a public health emergency of international concern isn't necessarily focusing on countries that have capacities like Canada's. They have to look at the whole world, including countries that don't have the necessary capacity to prepare.
We've been preparing since the beginning of even hearing about this outbreak and we have all these protocols, so I would say that we're commensurate with countries that are similar in terms of health capacities. We are of course a lot better than some of the other countries, which I think collaboratively, globally, we have to support, because a global containment strategy only works if every single country is part of it and there's a cohesion in how we respond.
Liberal
Darren Fisher Liberal Dartmouth—Cole Harbour, NS
Are you happy with the collaboration you're getting from China, as compared to maybe the situation in the past, in 2003?
Chief Public Health Officer, Public Health Agency of Canada
Obviously, we collaborate as part of WHO and the member states.
What we have seen, given my close communication with WHO, is how impressed they are by the work of China. The astoundingly rapid way in which they tried to get a handle on what is causing the outbreak, and giving the world the sequence of the virus, was very helpful. They've been providing information about cases, which is extremely helpful. But even the fastest of countries still needs a bit of time to actually digest some of this information. They have been open to WHO and an international team to support and to essentially look at what's actually happening.
You've seen the incredibly extraordinary measures that China has put in place to try to contain this within its borders. Even if this virus is capable of transmission from human to human, as I said, 99% of the cases are in China. Not that many—like 1%—are outside, so they are really trying very hard, and I think we have to be very supportive of the efforts.
Liberal
Darren Fisher Liberal Dartmouth—Cole Harbour, NS
Excellent.
I was happily surprised when you said that Ontario now has the ability to test. We're obviously still using the National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg as the true tester, but will we get to a point where Ontario and other provinces will not need to use Winnipeg's results as the true proving point?
Liberal
Darren Fisher Liberal Dartmouth—Cole Harbour, NS
Do we also have the ability to test in other places in Canada?
Chief Public Health Officer, Public Health Agency of Canada
I think that after SARS, much capacity has been put in place, including the Canadian Public Health Laboratory Network, which involves all the provinces, so there are provincial laboratories.
I think our end goal, if possible, is that as many of them as possible can do the test, because you need to be rapid. Sending a sample to Winnipeg takes a bit of time even if we run it really fast when we get it.
I think some of the provinces, such as British Columbia, which is the other one, did very rapid testing. Part of that was that they actually sequenced the whole genome overnight, so we know they can, and other jurisdictions can as well. Eventually, though, there will be much broader, maybe even commercial test kits, that a laboratory can use to rapidly identify it as well. Those are the research efforts.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Ron McKinnon
No, you've burned it all up. Thank you.
We now go back to Mrs. Jansen for five minutes.