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New cluster of SARS cases in Canada could exceed 60: Official
Toronto, May 29: The number of probable SARS cases in Canada`s largest city could be 60 or more, a leading figure in Toronto`s efforts to contain the disease today said.
Toronto, May 29: The number of probable SARS cases in Canada's largest city could be 60 or more, a leading figure in Toronto's efforts to contain the disease today said.
Dr Donald Low said health officials were likely to designate more patients as probable cases of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome when they apply a broader definition of the diagnosis to a new outbreak first noticed last week.
Low said he expected the total to include about 40 probable cases at North York General Hospital, 10 to 15 at Scarborough Grace Hospital and seven at St John's Rehabilitation Hospital.
"We're talking numbers at least in the sixties or seventies," Low said.
Yesterday, Canadian health officials put the known number of cases at 11 probable and 23 suspected, with another 50 people under investigation. They also announced two more deaths of elderly patients, raising the overall toll in the Toronto area to 29.
Ontario and Toronto health officials have told more than 5,000 people to go into home quarantine because of the latest SARS cluster in the biggest outbreak of the illness outside of Asia.
The new cases put Canada's largest city back on a World Health Organization list of SARS-affected areas. Four more probable cases from the initial Toronto outbreak in March and April also remained hospitalised.
Yesterday, the WHO advised Canada to broaden its definition of SARS following concern expressed by Low that the current one provided an incomplete accounting of the situation.
Bureau Report