Public Health Sudbury & Districts will be holding a press conference to update the public on the city's first positive case of COVID-19 at a press conference this morning.
Sudbury.com will bring you live coverage of that presser at 10 a.m.
Public Health issued a press release just after 10 p.m. on March 10, confirming a man in his 50s who had attended the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) conference in Toronto had tested positive for COVID-19.
PDAC is a major mining conference that drew more than 25,000 people from more than 130 countries to Toronto from March 1-4.
It is widely attended by people from Timmins.
The Sudbury man was at the conference on March 2 and 3, Public Health stated.
He went to the emergency department at Health Sciences North on March 7 with a cough and shortness of breath.
"The hospital took all necessary precautions and followed standard operating procedures, including infection control, testing, and assessment. Following testing, the patient was discharged home where he remains in self-isolation, following Public Health direction," Public Health stated.
It's not clear how many Sudburians attended PDAC, but it is a major conference for those in the mining sector and is a calendar event for dozens of Sudbury companies.
Public Health advises anyone who attended the conference to monitor their health for fever, cough and difficulty breathing for 14 days. There is no need to self-quarantine if you have no symptoms.
If you do have symptoms, you should self-quarantine and call your doctor or Public Health to make arrangements to be tested for COVID-19.
“Having a confirmed case in our area is not unexpected given the transmission of this virus around the world,” said Dr. Penny Sutcliffe, Sudbury & District medical officer of health. “Although this is concerning, as a community and as a health system, we have been preparing for COVID-19. Our focus is on breaking the chain of transmission to limit the spread of infection and as a precautionary measure, we are asking those who attended PDAC 2020 to monitor for symptoms for 14 days.”
