3 additional cases of COVID-19 variant found in UK confirmed across GTA, first in Toronto

Ontario health officials announced three additional cases of the new COVID-19 variant, including the first reported in Toronto.

This brings the total of recent infections of the variant first discovered in the UK to six.

Ontario’s Associate Chief Medical Officer of Health, Dr. Barbara Yaffe, said all three cases of the new strain found in Ontario have recently travelled or had contact with someone who travelled outside the country.

“The first case is a resident of York Region with recent travel to the United Kingdom,” Yaffe said on Monday.

“The second case is a resident of Peel Region with no personal travel history but a close contact of a confirmed case with a travel history to Dubai. The public health Ontario laboratory currently has the sample from the individual and it is being tested for the UK variant.”

“The third case is in a resident of the City of Toronto with recent travel to the United Kingdom,” Yaffe added.

She said that COVID-19 does not know borders, maintaining that residents should not be travelling unless absolutely necessary.

Last week, a third case of the UK COVID-19 variant in Ontario and the first case in British Columbia was announced by health officials.

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

Both Britain and South Africa have discovered new variants in the coronavirus in recent months.

According to Al Jazeera, Scientists say the South African variant is different because it has several mutations in the “spike” protein that the virus uses to infect healthy human cells.

On Monday, British Health Secretary Matt Hancock said the variant identified in South Africa is a bigger risk than the one first discovered in the UK.

Hancock said Britain needs to tighten restrictions in some areas of the country to tackle the rapid spread of a new variant of the coronavirus after cases surged in recent weeks.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said England is adopting a national lockdown that he hopes will be tough enough to contain the contagious strain.

To date, the country has recorded over 2.6 million cases of COVID-19 and more than 75,000 related deaths, according to data from John Hopkins University.