Health committee  Of course there are different linkages, whether technical or scientific, or through consular linkages, and also through our actual operation centres, but I think what is difficult is that we actually need to.... It's actually quite a difficult piece of epidemiology to ascertain whether some asymptomatic person could ever transmit.

Health committee  Asymptomatic during travel, yes, but not after they came in.

Health committee  There is a network of laboratories called the Canadian Public Health Laboratory Network. These are mainly provincial laboratories, public-held laboratories. Some of them can test for the coronavirus, but not all. The ones that can are in Ontario and British Columbia, but because the testing is so new and this virus is so new, they are still sending the samples to the Winnipeg lab just to be sure that this is what we have.

Health committee  I think one of the members asked about travel bans, stopping people from actually travelling. The reason the World Health Organization doesn't recommend something like this is that, in general, it may do more harm than good. I think someone mentioned what the United States was doing.

Health committee  It's actually a very evolving proportion, because, as you can imagine, at the beginning of any outbreak, it is the people who have the most severe symptoms who present. Many of the teams in China are currently unpacking the mild symptoms that are the underside of the iceberg, if you like.

Health committee  As the president of the agency just stated, the World Health Organization declared this “a public health emergency of international concern” and indicated that right now we are in the containment phase. The most effective piece of containment, of course, is at source, in China itself, where you're seeing some of the extraordinary measures that are being taken.

Health committee  I'll respond to that question. Obviously, in British Columbia, the health officials and the local public health unit in charge of that particular investigation have been in very close contact with the Public Health Agency. As I understand it, the potential transmission occurred inside a family setting.

Health committee  We are aware of a very small number of case reports in which it's suspected that asymptomatic transmission may have occurred, but these have not been verified. In fact, with regard to the New England Journal study, there's now been a publication to say that it was incorrect and that this person was, in fact, symptomatic and had been taking some medication that suppressed his fever, for example.

Health committee  I just want to add that, on the question of Vancouver, the idea is that no passengers get off in Vancouver, unless there's an emergency—if someone had a heart attack or there were other issues. The British Columbian teams are already rehearsing, if there's an emergency, to safely transport to the health facility.

Health committee  The situation is continuing to evolve in terms of what's happening in China. I just want to underline that the risk in Canada is low. We have very few cases. The chains of interaction have been contained. It's not spreading in Canada. Really, out of an abundance of caution, while the risk is low, we're actually in quite a special period globally of containment.

Health committee  Just to add to what the president said, obviously the front line of all the health facilities is a very critical point for assessment. Based on what all the provinces and territories are doing, they have a very low threshold at the moment for looking for anyone, not just from Hubei province, but from all over China, and they have the flexibility and physicians to test anyone they suspect might have the coronavirus.

Health committee  We know that entry screening—into Canada, for example—can never be 100% in terms of stopping any.... This is a virus. It can cross borders. This is a layer of a multi-layered response. The most important layer, of course, is the initial entry into the health system. We've talked a bit about that.

Health committee  We're not doing that, yes.

Health committee  I think there are models that have been done in terms of flight paths and the numbers over January to March from Wuhan, for instance, so we have those numbers, but Canada's risk is much, much lower than that of many countries. It's going to be rare, but we are expecting cases. It doesn't matter how few those cases are.

Health committee  I think each individual country does have some variation.