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Tracking the origin of early COVID-19 cases in Canada
Naizhuo Zhao1, Ying Liu2, Audrey Smargiassi2
1Division of Clinical Epidemiology, McGill University Health Centre, Montreal, QC, Canada.
Abstract:
The original coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak in Wuhan, China has become a global pandemic. By tracking the earliest 118 COVID-19 cases in Canada, we produced a Voronoi treemap to show the travel origins of the country's earliest COVID-19 cases. By March 11, 2020, even though the majority (64.1%) of the world's COVID-19 confirmed cases still had their origin in China, only 7.6% of Canada's first 118 COVID-19 cases were related to travelers from China. The most commonly reported travel history among the 118 cases related to the Middle East, the United States, and Europe. Thus, in retrospect, broadening of early screening tools and travel restrictions to countries and regions outside China may have helped control global COVID-19 spread.
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