TORONTO —
Labs across Canada are on the hunt for variants, and with increasing regularity, they are finding them.
The extra-contagious variants that emerged in the U.K. and South Africa have been found in seven provinces now — and Ontario recently logged the country’s first case of the variant that was first detected in Brazil, known as the P.1 variant.
Over the weekend, it was detected in Toronto, Ont., making the city perhaps the first in the world to identify cases of all three current variants of concern. The patient had travelled to Canada from Brazil, and is now hospitalized.
Not only is the P.1 variant more transmissible, likely behind a deadly surge of cases and deaths in Manaus, Brazil, it also seems to infect people who have already had COVID-19.
While Ontario is set to loosen some restrictions due to lower caseloads overall, officials say they will be monitoring the situation carefully.
“While we have seen some progress, the risk remains high,” Deputy Premier Christine Elliott said Monday. “COVID-19 variants are now spreading in Ontario and remain a significant threat to controlling the pandemic in all areas of the province, including those currently with low transmission.”
Premier Doug Ford has said that the reopening process will be done carefully, and regions that have moved to the “green” classification will shut down again quickly if need be.
“[If] all of a sudden we see the U.K. variant, South African variant, Brazilian variant, go into your community — it will switch,” he said. “We’ll put the brakes on immediately, because it spreads so quickly.”
Even provinces with a just a handful of variant infections are putting out the need for caution.
“With a variant at play it will tax us beyond what we’ve seen, and we’re really trying to take all measures possible,” Dr. Jennifer Russell, New Brunswick’s chief medical officer of health, said.
Health experts are concerned that if these variants got a better foothold in the population, they could spread faster due to their increased transmissibility, potentially leading to a surge in cases.
“All evidence suggests that they’re more infectious,” Andrew McArthur, associate professor in the department of biochemistry and biomedical sciences at McMaster University, told CTV News. “So it just increases the odds, that if you’re close together without personal protection, you’re in a room with poor ventilation, that you have higher odds of transmitting [COVID-19]. So that increases the chance of a third wave in Ontario.”
And more variants just bring more danger.
“We know that the U.K. [variant], the South African variant, made it into Canada and now have evidence of community transmission,” McArthur said. “We’re worried about the Brazilian P.1 [variant], that the same will occur.”
Scientists say the best way to fight off these variants for now is twofold: lower cases so that public health officials can focus on variants, and expand genetic testing of samples to find those infected quickly and trace and isolate their contacts.
“The key thing is we’re at a very difficult part of the pandemic,” McArthur told CTV News. “The more cases and the more time go by, the more variants that occur, so these will not be the last.
“We’re in a horse race between fighting these variants and overall numbers and getting to mass vaccination.”
The three variants are similar in their mutations, according to McArthur, with only minor differences between the spike proteins that allow the virus to latch onto human cells. But those differences do have an effect. With the variant that first emerged in the U.K., B.1.1.7, the main concern is its increased transmissibility, McArthur said, while the other two are thought to increase infectiousness and also potentially reduce vaccine effectiveness.
But it’s a slow process to genetically test samples, taking four to seven days to decode the DNA.
“That is time consuming,” Natale Prystajecky, an environmental microbiologist with B.C. Centre for Disease Control, told CTV News. “It is about four days of full-time work, and to get that data it is very expensive.”
And with many provinces looking at lifting restrictions, it will require a delicate balance between finding and eliminating these variant infections, or else newer and even tougher lockdowns may be on the table.
EDMONTON – RCMP say a second suspect has been arrested in the killing of an Alberta county worker.
Mounties say 28-year-old Elijah Strawberry was taken into custody Friday at a house on O’Chiese First Nation.
Colin Hough, a worker with Rocky View County, was shot and killed while on the job on a rural road east of Calgary on Aug. 6.
Another man who worked for Fortis Alberta was shot and wounded, and RCMP said the suspects fled in a Rocky View County work truck.
Police later arrested Arthur Wayne Penner, 35, and charged him with first-degree murder and attempted murder, and a warrant was issued for Strawberry’s arrest.
RCMP also said there was a $10,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of Strawberry, describing him as armed and dangerous.
Chief Supt. Roberta McKale, told a news conference in Edmonton that officers had received tips and information over the last few weeks.
“I don’t know of many members that when were stopped, fuelling up our vehicles, we weren’t keeping an eye out, looking for him,” she said.
But officers had been investigating other cases when they found Strawberry.
“Our investigators were in O’Chiese First Nation at a residence on another matter and the major crimes unit was there working another file and ended up locating him hiding in the residence,” McKale said.
While an investigation is still underway, RCMP say they’re confident both suspects in the case are in police custody.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
RICHMOND, B.C. – The Integrated Homicide Investigation Team says the 26-year-old son of a man found dead on British Columbia’s Sunshine Coast has been charged with his murder.
Police say 58-year-old Henry Doyle was found badly injured on a forest service road in Egmont last September and died of his injuries.
The homicide team took over when the BC Coroners Service said the man’s death was suspicious.
It says in a statement that the BC Prosecution Service has approved one count of first-degree murder against the man’s son, Jackson Doyle.
Police say the accused will remain in custody until at least his next court appearance.
The homicide team says investigators remained committed to solving the case with the help of the community of Egmont, the RCMP on the Sunshine Coast and in Richmond, and the Vancouver Police Department.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
VANCOUVER – Mediated talks between the union representing HandyDART workers in Metro Vancouver and its employer, Transdev, have broken off without an agreement following 15 hours of talks.
Joe McCann, president of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1724, says they stayed at the bargaining table with help from a mediator until 2 a.m. Friday and made “some progress.”
However, he says the union negotiators didn’t get an offer that they could recommend to the membership.
McCann says that in some ways they are close to an agreement, but in other areas they are “miles apart.”
About 600 employees of the door-to-door transit service for people who can’t navigate the conventional transit system have been on strike since last week, pausing service for all but essential medical trips.
McCann asks HandyDART users to be “patient,” since they are trying to get not only a fair contract for workers but also a better service for customers.
He says it’s unclear when the talks will resume, but he hopes next week at the latest.
The employer, Transdev, didn’t reply to an interview request before publication.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
