Toronto — Ontario public health officials expressed confidence on Friday that their approach to containing the SARS outbreak is the right one, despite a slight increase in the number of cases.
"The strategy of isolation and containment has been shown to help us tremendously," said Dr. Colin D'Cunha, Ontario's chief medical officer of health. He said the number of probable and suspect cases of severe acute respiratory syndrome in the province rose to 217 Friday, up from 206 the day before.
In all, 10 people in Canada have died from the disease. More than 100 have died from SARS worldwide, and thousands have taken ill.
Dr. D'Cunha said some people in Ontario who need to isolate themselves for the disease's 10-day incubation period are not doing so, and warned legal action would continue to be used against them.
Trying to allay fears that Asians are likely to carry SARS, Prime Minister Jean Chrétien sits down to lunch in Toronto's Chinatown. (Fred Lum/The Globe and Mail)
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"The message here to everybody is: take our directives around isolation seriously.
"We will get tough for the ones — and that's the small minority of people — who don't believe in societal good."
Meanwhile, both the federal and Ontario governments said more education on the SARS outbreak is needed both domestically and internationally to allay fears that Canada or Toronto are somehow dangerous.
With foreign countries issuing travel advisories and companies warning employees about the hazards posed by Toronto, they said it's critical to dispel the ignorance about the disease before the economic damage gets worse.
"There is no reason for anybody outside of Canada to tell their citizens, their employees not to come to Toronto," federal Transportation Minister David Collenette said.
"We shouldn't fan the flames where they don't deserve to exist."
Several countries, including Australia, Ireland, Austria and Jamaica, have warned their citizens to avoid travelling to Canada's largest city in light of the outbreak.
In all, about 250 possible cases have been identified across the country, most in Ontario.
This week, Arkansas-based Wal-Mart warned its employees against travelling to Toronto as a precaution against SARS.
Wal-Mart, which has more than 200 retail stores in Canada, also asked employees or suppliers who have travelled to those areas to stay away from company locations until it was clear they were not infected.
A major medical conference was scrapped, celebrities such as Lisa Marie Presley have put off visits to Toronto and many Chinese restaurants and malls in the city have been nearly emptied of customers.
Premier Ernie Eves said it's clear the epidemic was taking a widening economic toll.
"Obviously it affects tourism, it affects travel, and it affects, sooner or later, not just the government's bottom line, but the bottom line of businesses," Mr. Eves said.
The Premier also suggested Wal-Mart bosses and others shunning Toronto were ignorant, saying they should get the facts from the province's chief medical officer of health or public safety commissioner about how the illness is spread.
"Somebody might want to do some education-checking on SARS itself and exactly what is going on," said Mr. Eves, who praised front-line health and other workers in containing the outbreak.
Mr. Eves also said his caucus was planning to demonstrate its appreciation and solidarity with Toronto's Asian community next week "in a fairly significant way" but did not elaborate.
On Thursday, Prime Minister Jean Chrétien and other cabinet ministers ate at a Chinese restaurant to show federal support for the community.
Mr. Collenette expressed confidence the SARS outbreak was well in hand but warned the economic damage could persist.
"What we've got to be careful of is that there's no lasting stigma," he said.
"So we all have a duty, not just as Torontonians but as Canadians, to tell people around the world that we're fine."
He suggested various levels of governments might come up with some kind of ad campaign within the next few weeks to get that message out.
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