COVID-19 case confirmed among cruise ship passengers in Trenton

One of the quarantined passengers from the Grand Princess cruise ship has tested positive for COVID-19 at CFB Trenton.

According to the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC), the patient passed initial screening in California but reported a mild fever and cough upon arriving in Trenton, Ont.

The patient is being kept apart from the 227 other Grand Princess passengers currently in quarantine at the base.

The agency did not share the person's age or gender.

The early detection of this case and the rapid response taken by all authorities involved demonstrate that our public health and emergency response systems are working.- Public Health Agency of Canada

"All infection prevention and control protocols were followed in processing the travellers returning from the Grand Princess," PHAC said in a statement.

"The early detection of this case and the rapid response taken by all authorities involved demonstrate that our public health and emergency response systems are working."

The ship with more than 3,500 people aboard idled off the coast of San Francisco for days before being cleared to dock in nearby Oakland, Calif., on Monday.

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Canada organized an airlift to CFB Trenton, as it did for Canadians and some permanent residents from China's Hubei province, and for passengers from a different cruise ship who were place in quarantine at the Nav Centre in Cornwall, Ont.

No positive cases were reported during either of those 14-day quarantines.

Canadians evacuated from Grand Princess land

5 years ago

Duration 4:37

The plane carrying 237 Canadians who were on the Grand Princess cruise ship has landed at CFB Trenton. Several people on the ship have tested positive for the novel coronavirus. Passengers will be quarantined at the base for 14 days.

As of Wednesday morning, there were 36 confirmed cases in Ontario, plus five "resolved" cases of the respiratory illness that causes cold- and flu-like symptoms, is new in humans and has no known vaccine.

Among the cases confirmed by the Ministry of Health on Wednesday morning are the first in Sudbury, Ottawa and Hamilton, where a cancer doctor at Hamilton Health Sciences has contracted the illness.

The World Health Organization has declared the COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic, meaning a worldwide spread of a new disease.

PHAC says the risk to Canadians from COVID-19 remains low.