Kanadan tilanteeseen päivitystä: Brasilian P1 variantti on levinnyt Whistlerin hiihtokeskuksesa ja erityisesti nuoressa ikäryhmässä.
The coronavirus variant that forced the Whistler Blackcomb ski resort to close is spreading rapidly in B.C. and sending more young people to hospital, raising concern about health officials’ ability to control the outbreak that is the largest known spread outside Brazil.
Whistler recorded 1,120 COVID-19 cases from the beginning of January to March 28, with 218 of them last week alone, driven by the P.1 variant most commonly associated with Brazil. The majority of cases – 83.2 per cent – are in people aged 20 to 39.
Whistler was a COVID-19 hot spot earlier this year, recording nearly 300 cases in January. Transmission mostly occurred in shared household settings among young adults.
“We’re starting to see cases increase again in that community and particularly in the past week with the more worrisome cluster of the P1 Brazil variant of concern,” Henry said.
“We’ve also seen transmission from travel to and from other communities across B.C. from the Whistler area.”
Myös Vancouverissa pelätään P1 -varianttia - muutamia tapauksia jo löytynyt:
We may never know what strains of the coronavirus have hit the Canucks, but the Vancouver Coastal Health region has become a global hotspot for the highly-transmissible P.1 Brazilian variant.
The Canadian Press reported Thursday that St. Paul’s Hospital, which screens positive samples in the Vancouver area, had identified by Wednesday night 480 confirmed cases of the P.1 variant. This regional total was more than any country outside of Brazil has recorded, the news agency reported.
Edit.
As the spread of variants of the coronavirus continues to rise in British Columbia, there is concern that renewed restriction measures may not be enough to contain the spread.
Mutations of the virus that spread more easily and can cause more severe outcomes, including increased death rates, are known as variants of concern. Another 871 variant cases were detected in B.C. in the past week, most of those the B.1.1.7 variant, known as the U.K. variant. But P.1, known as the Brazil variant, is also on the rise in B.C.