Third provincial case of UK COVID-19 variant discovered in Ottawa

A third case of the UK COVID-19 variant in Ontario and the first case in British Columbia were announced by health officials on Sunday, marking four confirmed cases in Canada.

The latest latest case of the variant in Ontario was found in the Ottawa region.

Ottawa Public Health Department says the individual is now in self-isolation, adding they had recently travelled from the UK. However, they gave no timetable as to when they arrived back in the country.

Provincial health officials also report that the first two people confirmed with the variant strain – a couple in Durham Region, just east of Toronto – had indeed been in contact with a recent traveller from the UK.

It was initially reported the pair had no previous exposure or high-risk contacts.

This makes all three Ontario cases confirmed so far connected to travel rather than community spread.

“This further reinforces the need for Ontarians to stay home as much as possible and continue to follow all public health advice, including the provincewide shutdown measures,” said Dr. Barbara Yaffe, Ontario’s Associate Chief Medical Officer of Health. “This is also an important reminder about the need for arriving international travelers to maintain quarantine for 14 days.”

Canada has imposed a travel ban on all flights arriving from the United Kingdon until January 6, 2021 and Ontario is currently in a province-wide lockdown.

Moments after Ontario confirmed its third case, British Columbia health authorities confirmed their first case – an individual who lives on Vancouver Island and returned from the UK on Dec. 15. That makes four known cases of the UK COVID-19 strain in Canada.

Infectious diseases experts say they would not be surprised if more cases of this variant strain start to show up in Canada.