Murray Wood: Happy Sportsmas! It's like Christmas right now for sports fans
Between the red-hot Saskatchewan Roughriders, the Toronto Blue Jays and the start of the new NHL season, Murray Wood say...
A variant of COVID-19 has been detected in Saskatchewan.
In its daily COVID update Tuesday, the Ministry of Health said the U.K. variant had been detected in two residents of the Regina zone.
According to the ministry, one individual travelled to Canada from the United Kingdom and the other is a close contact of the traveller.
“These individuals were tested mid-January,” the ministry said. “While the Roy Romanow Provincial Laboratory (in Regina) is testing travellers for variants of concern, those tests must be genome-sequenced at the National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg. This process can take one to two weeks.”
The government said the individuals quarantined and aren’t infectious any longer. As well, all of their contacts have been identified and there isn’t any indication of further transmission.
During a media conference Tuesday, Dr. Saqib Shahab — the province’s chief medical health officer — was asked if Saskatchewan had to change its public health measures now that the variant had been found in the province.
“It is unknown whether the (U.K.) variant in Canada will become the dominant strain,” Shahab said. “Some modellers are predicting that maybe it will, especially in the larger urban centres. We’ll have to monitor that and take appropriate measures.”
Shahab said the variant popped up in the United Kingdom right after a lockdown had ended. Stricter measures were enacted — including the closure of schools — as the U.K. clamped down.
It’s unlikely Saskatchewan will take a similar approach immediately given that there only two cases and no indication of community transmission of the variant.
“Everything we’re doing right now is everything that’s important to minimize the transmission of any COVID strain, whether it’s a variant of concern or the predominant strain right now in Canada …,” Shahab said.
“We’ll constantly have to stay the course with our public health measures, keep seeing a downward trend, monitor the impacts of variants of concern and see if we need to adjust, and most importantly continue to strive for a high vaccine uptake.”
It’s believed current vaccines are effective against the new strains — the U.K. variant, the South African variant and a Brazilian variant.
The key, Premier Scott Moe reiterated, is to follow the public health measures that are in place.
“We know this is a more contagious variant, which serves to reinforce to each of us why we need to keep doing what we know works to reduce the spread of this virus, regardless of which variant it is,” Moe said.
“We need to continue with our physical distancing. We need to continue wearing a mask. We need to continue to stay at home when we’re not feeling well and to avoid unnecessary travel. And we need to always follow up with all of the other public health orders and guidelines that keep ourselves safe, keep our families safe and keep all of those around us safe.”
