Seven new COVID-19 cases reported in Ontario

Ontario is reporting new cases of the Novel Coronavirus.

Four cases of COVID-129 were confirmed Sunday in the province and three more on Monday.

On Saturday, health authorities in British Columbia said that an eighth case had been confirmed in that province.

On Thursday, Quebec announced its first case.

There are now 27 cases in Canada as The Public Health Agency of Canada continues to assess the public health risk associated with COVID-19 as low for Canadians.

Ontario health officials say all the new cases in the province involved people who had recently travelled to Iran or Egypt, or family members of those who had visited the two countries.

Ontario’s health minister, Dr. David Williams, says that–so far–it does not appear that the virus is spreading locally.

More than 89,000 cases have now been detected in 67 countries and COVID-19 is currently present on every continent except Antarctica.

This total incudes 3,000 persons who have died from the virus..

The head of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who last week upgraded the risk of spread to WHO’s highest level, said Monday he was especially concerned by the spread, as the number of cases in China continues to decline.

Speaking Monday, he said there had been almost nine-times more cases reported outside of China than inside China in the previous 24 hours.

Meanwhile, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development delivered a dire economic forecast as the virus spreads.

The OECD says global economic growth could shrink to as low as 1.5 per cent in the first quarter as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak.

That would be down from its previous forecast of 2.5 per cent growth.

Observers say the the OECD’s bleak assessment could prompt the Bank of Canada to announce a rate cut on Wednesday morning.

With files from CBC, CTV, Global, CP, AP