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Health Canada monitoring new COVID-19 variant

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Health Canada is monitoring a new COVID-19 variant that has been detected in several countries, public health officials have confirmed.

The World Health Organization (WHO) added BA.2.86 to its list of COVID-19 variants that are under monitoring on Thursday.

While there are no cases of BA.2.86 confirmed in Canada yet, Health Canada told CTVNews.ca that public health officials are also monitoring for any cases that may arise.

“The Government of Canada has a strong monitoring program in place with the provinces and territories to identify COVID-19 variants in Canada,” a spokesperson for Health Canada said in an emailed statement Monday.

“Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) scientists, along with national and international experts, are actively monitoring and evaluating BA.2.86 lineages and their associated studies.”

The new variant has been detected in Denmark, Israel and the U.S. since late July, according to the open global genome sequencing database GISAID.

Epidemiologists and infectious disease experts maintain that the emergence of this new variant is not yet reason to be concerned.

“People should be cautious about jumping to premature conclusions,” said Dr. Isaac Bogoch, a Toronto-based infectious disease expert, during a phone interview with CTVNews.ca on Monday.

“As it stands, we’re at six genotypes from four countries on three continents. That’s all,” he said. “So we know what the genetic make-up is and there are components of that that raise an eyebrow for sure, but that’s about all we know.”

Bogoch explained that this emerging variant deviates from more recent mutations of COVID-19.

“There were components of this mutation that were reminiscent of BA2, which we saw much earlier on in the Omicron era,” he said. “There were [also] components similar to Delta mutations.”

Since the detection of this mutation is still early, Bogoch said that not enough information is known about BA.2.86’s transmissibility.

“We don’t know anything about what we would call virulence – how hard a punch [a variant] like this would pack.”

Bogoch added that detection tactics such as wastewater surveillance have proven “extremely important.”

“Genotyping,” a component of pathogen surveillance networks, allow scientists to observe changes in viruses in multiple regions – through waste water or clinical diagnosis – and then share data to open source public networks, he explained.

Dr. Tyson Graber, a research associate at the CHEO Research Institute in Ottawa who has helped detect prior variant mutations in wastewater research, further emphasized that it’s too soon to tell how transmissible the virus will be.

“BA.2.86 is not yet contributing to the current wave that has begun in many locations in Europe, the U.S. and here in Canada,” he wrote in an email to CTVNews.ca. “But clinical and wastewater surveillance networks in Ontario are providing the public with excellent situational awareness as we head into an uncertain fall pandemic period.”

According to WHO, all viruses, including SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, change over time.

“Most changes have little to no impact on the virus’s properties. However, some changes may affect the virus’s properties, such as how easily it spreads, the associated disease severity, or the performance of vaccines, therapeutic medicines, diagnostic tools, or other public health and social measures,” the organization’s website reads.

Bogoch believes the important part of this new COVID-19 lineage is that these cases were “detected early.”

“They were shared globally rather quickly,” he said. “And we’ll learn a lot more about this in the coming weeks as more genomes are uploaded to the system. It’s too soon to know whether this is going to amount to anything or not.”

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Sixth-ranked Canadian women to face World Cup champion Spain in October friendly

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September 17, 2024

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The sixth-ranked Canadian women will face World Cup champion Spain in an international friendly next month.

Third-ranked Spain will host Canada on Oct. 25 at Estadio Francisco de la Hera in Almendralejo.

The game will be the first for the Canadian women since the Paris Olympics, where they lost to Germany in a quarterfinal penalty shootout after coach Bev Priestman was sent home and later suspended for a year by FIFA over her part in Canada’s drone-spying scandal.

In announcing the Spain friendly, Canada Soccer said more information on the interim women’s coaching staff for the October window will come later. Assistant coach Andy Spence took charge of the team in Priestman’s absence at the Olympics.

Spain finished fourth in Paris, beaten 1-0 by Germany in the bronze-medal match.

Canada is winless in three previous meetings (0-2-1) with Spain, most recently losing 1-0 at the Arnold Clark Cup in England in February 2022.

The teams played to a scoreless draw in May 2019 in Logroñés, Spain in a warm-up for the 2019 World Cup. Spain won 1-0 in March 2019 at the Algarve Cup in São João da Venda, Portugal.

Spain is a powerhouse in the women’s game these days.

It won the FIFA U-20 World Cup in 2022 and was runner-up in 2018. And it ousted Canada 2-1 in the round of 16 of the current U-20 tournament earlier this month in Colombia before falling 1-0 to Japan after extra time in the quarterfinal.

Spain won the FIFA U-17 World Cup in 2018 and 2022 and has finished on the podium on three other occasions.

FC Barcelona’s Aitana Bonmati (2023) and Alexia Putellas (2021 and ’22) have combined to win the last three Women’s Ballon d’Or awards.

And Barcelona has won three of the last four UEFA Women’s Champions League titles.

“We continue to strive to diversify our opponent pool while maintaining a high level of competition.” Daniel Michelucci, Canada Soccer’s director of national team operations, said in a statement. “We anticipate a thrilling encounter, showcasing two of the world’s top-ranked teams.”

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This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 17, 2024

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Former Oilers assistant GM Brad Holland follows his father out the door in Edmonton

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September 17, 2024

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EDMONTON – The NHL’s Edmonton Oilers announced Tuesday that assistant general manager Brad Holland is leaving the club.

The move comes almost three months after the departure of former Oilers general manager Ken Holland, Brad’s father.

Oilers chief executive officer and president of hockey operations Jeff Jackson said in a statement that Brad Holland and the team parted ways so Holland could “explore other opportunities.”

Holland, 43, joined the Oilers as a scout in 2019. He was promoted to assistant GM in July 2022.

He had a hand in building the team that advanced to Game 7 of the 2023-24 Stanley Cup final before losing to the Florida Panthers.

The Oilers hired former Chicago Blackhawks GM Stan Bowman to replace Ken Holland on July 1.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 17, 2024.

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Dolphins place Tua Tagovailoa on injured reserve after latest concussion, AP source says

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September 17, 2024

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MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. (AP) — The Miami Dolphins are placing Tua Tagovailoa on injured reserve after the quarterback was diagnosed with his third concussion in two years, a person familiar with the move told The Associated Press on Tuesday.

The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the team had not yet announced the move. Tagovailoa will be sidelined for at least four games with the designation.

He was hurt in the third quarter of a Thursday night game against the Buffalo Bills on a play where he collided with Bills defensive back Damar Hamlin. He ran for a first down and then initiated the contact by lowering his shoulder into Hamlin instead of sliding.

Players from both teams immediately motioned that Tagovailoa was hurt, and as he lay on the turf the quarterback exhibited some signs typically associated with a traumatic brain injury. He remained down on the field for a couple of minutes, got to his feet and walked to the sideline.

Tagovailoa this week began the process of consulting neurologists about his health. He was diagnosed with two concussions in 2022 and one while in college at Alabama.

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