Reports of New Case of COVID-19 on Air Canada Flight Misleading

Weekend reports of a new case of COVID-19 in a passenger travelling on an Air Canada flight from Montreal to Vancouver on Valentine’s Day are misleading – the passenger is the same case reported in British Columbia last Thursday.

B.C.’s Provincial Health Services Authority (PHSA) said that female passenger travelled to Montreal from Iran, then flew Air Canada to Vancouver. The COVID-19 case was confirmed to have been contracted in Iran in late January.

The case was the first one in Canada to not be connected to travel in China or the country’s Hubei province, where the COVID-19 outbreak first began.

The woman, who is in her 30s and is in the Fraser Health region, is recovering at home from a “mild” case of the new coronavirus.

PHSA says there is no public health risk for schools in the community or evidence the virus is circulating in the community. BC currently has 5 cases of the virus, one of which has fully recovered.