Canada tells travellers from Iran to isolate over coronavirus

FILE PHOTO: Staff wearing protective suits check passengers arriving to board a flight, chartered by the U.S. State Department to evacuate Americans and Canadians from China due to the outbreak of novel Coronavirus, at Wuhan Tianhe International Airport in Wuhan, China February 7, 2020. Courtesy of Edward Wang via REUTERS.

TORONTO (Reuters) - Canada is telling travellers from Iran to isolate themselves at home for 14 days because of the novel coronavirus, the same direction given to people arriving from Hubei, China, the epicentre of the outbreak, officials said on Monday.

Canada had already advised citizens to avoid non-essential travel to Iran.

"The rapid increase in cases in Iran and the number of recent Canadian cases linked to travellers coming from Iran is very concerning," said Chief Medical Officer Theresa Tam, announcing the measure on a conference call with reporters.

Canada has 27 confirmed cases of the virus, Tam said. All patients had travelled to affected areas or were close contacts of people who had.

(Reporting by Allison Martell; Editing by David Gregorio)