TORONTO (Reuters) – Ontario health officials said on Saturday that two confirmed cases of the new variant of coronavirus first detected in the UK have appeared in the Canadian province.
Scientists say the variant is about 40% -70% more transmissible than the original strain. Several other countries, including Australia, Italy and the Netherlands, say they detected cases of the new strain.
The Canadian cases, identified in a couple in southern Ontario with no known history of travel, exposure or high-risk contact, occurred when the province closed on Saturday.
“This further reinforces the need for Ontarians to stay home as long as possible and continue to follow all public health advice, including province-wide shutdown measures starting today,” said Dr. Barbara Yaffe, no Ontario associate physician, in a statement.
Ontario reported 4,301 new cases over the past two days on Saturday, and the province recorded more than 2,000 cases a day for 12 consecutive days.
Last week, Canada extended the ban on passenger flights arriving from Britain until January 6 and extended improved control and control measures to travelers arriving from South Africa, citing the increase in the variant more infectious.
Scientists say there is no evidence to indicate that vaccines currently being deployed (including one by Pfizer and BioNtech) or other shots of COVID-19 in development do not protect against this variant.
Canada began rolling out the Pfizer vaccine earlier this month and began distributing Moderna Inc.’s COVID-19 vaccine across the country last Thursday.
To date, Canada has reported 541,616 cases of COVID-19, including 14,800 deaths.
Amran Abocar Reports; Edited by Matthew Lewis and Daniel Wallis