The city has cancelled all non-essential training sessions and conferences for its 8,000 employees as it scales up efforts to prevent the spread of coronavirus in Hamilton.

The in-person events are suspended until April 30 as staff meeting daily at the city's emergency operations centre in the joint fire-EMS headquarters on Stone Church Road East react to the changing pandemic landscape.

"We will continue to monitor and respond to this rapidly evolving situation to ensure we are providing the best support possible to the community as we work together to find our way through this challenging situation," Mayor Fred Eisenberger said in a press release late Thursday.

McMaster University also announced it has cancelled all discretionary events until "at least the end of April" and is asking employees to not travel outside Canada.

"The university is continuously monitoring the shifting landscape and responding according to the best available evidence," McMaster said in an update on its website.

"At this time, classes and labs will continue as scheduled, and the university remains open. Any changes to the academic calendar will be communicated as the situation evolves."

Cancelled discretionary events include university- and student-organized fundraisers, intramurals and performances, for instance, on and off campus.

It also includes tournaments, conferences and public speakers booked by outside organizations at McMaster.

March break tours, camps, public lectures and presentations that aren't part of an academic program are also off.

The city's emergency operations centre, which was activated at "Level 1" Wednesday in response to COVID-19, will move to "Level 2" protocols Friday, the city said in its press release.

The EOC is a collaboration of police, EMS, fire and public health staff to focus and organize resources during big emergencies, including flooding, ice storms and pandemics.

"The activation of our EOC this week builds on the hard work of our public health staff over the last couple of months, and helps ensure that the city continues to be responsive to the COVID-19 situation," Eisenberger said.

The city also noted staff are examining the effects of school closures announced earlier Thursday. Staff are also "reviewing all city-hosted public meetings, events and gatherings."

The city expects to release more information Friday.

Hamilton's first case — a 32-year-old Juravinski Cancer Centre oncologist who lives in Burlington and travelled to Hawaii — was announced Wednesday.

On Thursday, health officials said two more area residents tested positive: a 52-year-old Hamilton man and an Oakville woman in her 40s. Both had recently travelled to the United States.

The risk to the average Hamiltonian "remains low," Dr. Bart Harvey, the city's associate medical officer of health, said during a news conference early Thursday afternoon.

So far, Hamilton's cases have been related to travel, he said. Cause for greater concern would be "free community spread," which is the case elsewhere. "We're not there yet."

Harvey emphasized that people who aren't displaying symptoms won't be tested for the virus in hospital emergency rooms. "We just don't have that many test kits to go around."

On Thursday, the province announced an initial wave of dedicated COVID-19 assessment centres are to soon open at hospitals in the GTA and Ottawa.

"I would anticipate that in the next few days we will have additional assessment sites," Harvey said, noting the local health-care sector's proposal requires provincial sign-off.

Eisenberger said more sanitizer units would be put in municipal buildings and noted other protocols would be decided "in the next 24 hours."

In addition to its regular infectious disease team, 57 more public health staff have joined the effort to contain COVID-19, Harvey said.

Meanwhile, Hamilton police is working on a contingency plan to prioritize essential staff in case officers start to fall ill with the virus.

"We are identifying our essential staff as well as our non-essential, and how will they will complement each other in work that needs to be done," deputy chief Ryan Diodati said Thursday.

Essential staff are front-line officers who respond to calls, he said. Non-essential staff could be employees that service the fleet, for instance.

But non-essential staff still enable essential staff to do their job, Diodati said, noting cruisers are needed for calls.

Best practices for pandemics is to plan for a potential 25 to 30 per cent reduction in the workforce, he said. "Again, we haven't seen any reductions in our workforce. It's business as usual right now."

To report symptoms or ask for guidance, call the city's COVID-19 hotline at 905-546-2424, ext. 7970. Email questions to phscovid19@hamilton.ca.