Alberta Health is expanding its criteria for testing for the Coronavirus or Covid 19.

The Chief Medical Officer of Health, Deena Hinshaw says the global situation is changing rapidly and advice can change as more information becomes available.

"We're also continuing our planning to ensure that the health system is ready to respond should the virus come to Alberta," Hinshaw says. "We are working with partners like the Alberta Emergency Management Agency to ensure that planning and preparedness across all sectors is supported. We are encouraging businesses and employers to take this opportunity to review their own business continuity plans and consider how they would lower the risk of spread of the infection in the workplace should the virus come to Alberta.

She says Alberta is expanding its testing criteria to now include people who've visited Hong Kong, Singapore, Iran, South Korea, Japan, Italy and China.

Anyone who's traveled to those countries, and doesn't feel well, should isolate themselves and call HealthLink to see if further steps should be taken.

Hinshaw says she understands how people can become concerned when they hear the word pandemic.

"Again, it's really natural for people to be afraid of new threats to their health, that's just understandable, that's human nature, again this particular virus, about 80 per cent of the people who get it have a mild illness that they don't need any health treatment for and those are the kinds of things we want people to remember," she says.

She says each health zone has been tasked with developing a plan to deal with how and where it will be treated if it arrives.

 

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