Canadian provinces of British Columbia and Quebec report confirmed cases of a variant of the virus first identified in India, a new virus thought to be responsible for a sharp rise in new cases in Canada
Dr. Deena Hinshaw, chief medical officer of Alberta Health Canada, said Thursday (April 22) that the province confirmed the first case of a double variant of the virus named B.1.617 that emerged in India, after BC health officials confirmed Wednesday that nearly 40 cases of the Indian variant have been confirmed in the province, and that the new virus is believed to be responsible for the The new virus is believed to be responsible for the sharp rise in new cases in India. Earlier in the day, Quebec also reported finding the first case of the variant of the virus in a person who was vaccinated.
Dr. Hinshaw said confirmed B.1.617 patients have driven to Asia from other provinces and “as with all new variants, we are conducting research to understand how the B.1.617 variant may be different, how it spreads and whether it causes more severe disease.”
Sixty percent of the 19,182 confirmed cases in Asia that have not recovered are now associated with the four variants of the virus now confirmed in Canada.
39 cases of B.1.617 variant confirmed in BC
The BC Ministry of Health says that as of April 4, the province has identified 39 cases of a “dual variant” of B.1.617, but the virus has not yet been flagged as a variant of concern.
The BC CDC has now classified the virus as a variant of interest and the public laboratory is reviewing the genetic sequencing information and linking it to detailed information about the cases.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the World Health Organization (WHO) have developed new criteria for classifying variant strains of coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) as “variant of interest,” “variant of interest,” “variant of interest,” “variant of interest,” “variant of interest,” and “variant of interest. “variant of concern” and “variant of high consequence”. The criteria are intended to clarify the extent of recent changes in variant strains and to help understand the risk of transmission of variant strains.
B.C. Health Minister Adrian Dix said the B.1.617 variant has not yet been officially designated as a “variant of concern,” but added that “all cases of COVID-19 are of concern.
Didion said BC is concerned about the implementation of federal quarantine measures.
“We believe the government can do more to ensure that not only are quarantine efforts implemented, but that support is provided for people who may face quarantine difficulties.”
The B.C. Centre for Disease Control reports that at least 11 flights arriving in the province from India have had passengers confirmed with the disease since the beginning of April.
First case of infection confirmed in Quebec
Earlier Wednesday, Quebec confirmed the first confirmed case of the Indian variant in the central part of the province, with a patient from the Haute-Mauricie region who had been quarantined for having a family member infected before being tested for the virus. The local health authorities are currently investigating the source of infection.
The patient infected with this variant of the virus has received his first dose of vaccine. Doctors are currently unsure if his infection was caused by a true “vaccine escape” of the virus or by an inadequate immune response from the patient. The patient is recovering.
B.1.617 has a double mutation
B.1.617 emerged last year in India and is known as a super variant. It has a double mutation in the echinocandin protein, a mutation that the Indian Ministry of Health and Family Welfare says may bring about “immune escape and increased infectivity.
Raywat Deonandan, an epidemiologist at the University of Ottawa, told GlobalNews on Thursday (22) that the “variant of interest” is “suspected” of being more infectious than the initial strain, causing more severe disease or capable of causing more severe disease. strains that are “suspected” of being more infectious than the initial strain, causing more severe disease or able to escape the vaccine.
He added that the “variant of interest” could become a “variant of concern” if there is more evidence that the Indian variant shows one or more of these characteristics.
India now has one of the worst outbreaks in the world, with more than half of the cases originating from B.1.617, surpassing the coverage of the U.K. variant. More than 250,000 new cases are being reported daily in India this week, with more than 310,000 new patients and more than 2,100 deaths on Thursday.
The variant accounts for about 60 percent of cases in India, which suggests it is more transmissible, Dinandan said. But he said scientists still don’t know if the mutation on the variant causes more severe disease.
But experts say that despite the variant’s double mutation in the stinging protein gene, there is still no concrete evidence that approved vaccines for use do not work against it.
Although some call the variant a “double mutant,” Dr. Zain Chagla, an infectious disease expert at McMaster University, said it is a misnomer that conjures up the illusion of a super virus.
He said having two mutations on a spiked protein does not necessarily mean that the variant is more dangerous than one with one mutation in the gene.
But in response to an inquiry from German TV2, the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) noted that the two mutations in the Indian variant lead to a reduction in the neutralizing ability of antibodies or T cells to an unknown extent. This means that people who have been vaccinated and those who have been infected with the coronavirus may also be re-infected with the Indian variant.
Although genome sequencing indicates that B.1.617 is the predominant strain in India, the Indian government has not confirmed this.
According to the latest data from the Canadian government’s website, in the two weeks between April 8 and April 19, a total of 119 flights across Canada found confirmed patients, including 32 flights from the Indian capital of Delhi (Delhi), accounting for more than 25% of the total.
The Canadian federal government announced it will ban passenger flights from India and Pakistan for 30 days starting Thursday night, with the ban taking effect at 11:30 p.m. ET Thursday.
The Department of Health said it recently changed its virus testing strategy to ensure that laboratories have the capacity to sequence and identify emerging COVID-19 variants.
Recent Comments