A man in his 60s whose wife was confirmed just yesterday as Ontario's fifth case of COVID-19 has himself now tested positive for the deadly virus.

The province's Chief Medical Officer of Health, Dr. David Williams, announced the news of Ontario's sixth coronavirus patient Thursday morning, noting that the man is currently in self-isolation.

"We are working alongside Toronto Public Health, who is now and will continue to be in regular contact with this individual during their self-isolation period," said Williams in a government press release.

We have confirmed that the husband of Toronto’s most recent confirmed case of Coronavirus (COVID-19) has tested positive. He is in self-isolation and our Toronto Public Health team is in active communication with him & those he has been in contact with. https://t.co/gCos2SfnFi

— Joe Cressy (@joe_cressy) February 27, 2020

The man's wife, also in her 60s, attended Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre's emergency department in Toronto on February 24 with symptoms of respiratory distress, body aches and a fever. She was tested for coronavirus and released that same day. Her test came back positive, as announced Wednesday morning. 

Toronto Public Health revealed Wednesday afternoon that the woman had been travelling in Iran and returned to Canada nine days before visiting the hospital, leaving them scrambling to find everyone she had been in contact with since her trip.

Previous to this, four other people who recently travelled to China had tested positive for the disease in Ontario, though the first three patients have now recovered beyond the point of being infectious.

Two cases of COVID-19 are currently listed as "confirmed positive" in Ontario, while one more is listed as "presumptive positive."

"Toronto Public Health continues to actively engage in contact tracing and case management, including following up with the individual and his close contacts," reads a media release about the province's sixth patient.

"The risk of being infected with COVID-19 continues to be very low for Canadians and for Ontarians in particular."

We are receiving many questions about the novel coronavirus #2019nCoV & are grateful that people are asking us to get informed. We are updating our web info & FAQs as quickly as evidence-based facts are confirmed:https://t.co/l0dtb07kIf

— Toronto Public Health (@TOPublicHealth) February 1, 2020

A total of 81,109 cases of coronavirus had been confirmed globally —78,191 of them in China —  as of February 26, according to the World Health Organization.

At least 2,718 people have died as a result of contracting the virus within China, according to the WHO. Another 44 people have died elsewhere in the world, with cases of COVID-19 now registered in 37 countries including Canada and the U.S.

The Canadian government is still warning citizens to avoid avoid all travel to the province of Hubei, where the city of Wuhan remains in quarantine with more than 11 million residents on lockdown.