Thank you very much, Chair.
Just to follow up on that, since [Technical difficulty—Editor] the B.C. medical health officer has just made this public. Notices have gone out to schools in Coquitlam, Port Coquitlam and Port Moody, which is the tri-city in British Columbia, as well as other Fraser health areas in British Columbia. This is to do with the case of the woman from Iran, and I think they warn folks about potential concerns for anyone who has been in close contact with this woman in British Columbia.
Given that this is the case, there are now notices in schools in British Columbia about this, precisely to the point.... Their screenings could be missed. A person could be asymptomatic or have mild symptoms and be missed because they are not travelling back from Hubei province, and now that person is in an area in British Columbia potentially wider than what we anticipated to begin with.
In light of that, what measures should Canada be undertaking to address these kinds of concerns? We now hear the issue may well be a pandemic. The Minister of Health just today is encouraging Canadians to stockpile food and medications in their homes in case they or a loved one falls ill with the novel coronavirus.
I have a question about that too. If the minister is encouraging people to stockpile food and medications, how much food should they be stockpiling? How much medication should they be stockpiling? Should they be stockpiling surgical masks as well? In Hong Kong, in China and elsewhere, the shelves have become empty, and people are desperate to get these items.
I'm trying to get a sense of what statements like this mean for Canada.
This is for anybody on the panel, please.