B.C. confirms its first case of Omicron COVID-19 variant

The highly mutated Omicron variant of COVID-19 found in Ontario, Quebec, and Alberta has now made its way into B.C.

On Tuesday, Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry announced B.C. has detected its first case of Omicron. The person infected with the new COVID-19 variant recently returned from Nigeria and lives in the Fraser Health Authority. Henry says they are isolating.

When the variant was first identified, Henry says more than 200 people who had recently visited places where Omicron was of greater concern were sent for PCR testing and told to self-isolate. When this new variant became known, Henry says the province looked back at all of its results of whole-genome sequences to help understand how the virus has evolved.

When this new variant became known, Henry says the province looked back at all of its results of whole-genome sequences to help understand how the virus has evolved.

“We can be confident that we’re not seeing widespread transmission of this variant in B.C. yet,” she said.

“We know that these concerning mutations can arise and where vaccination is low in parts of the world, they can spread rapidly.”

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Henry says there are a lot of unknowns regarding this variant and it will take weeks for there to be sufficient data to understand it, but she says the province and federal government are surveilling, enhancing whole-genome sequencing, and epidemiologic studies to help us understand who is being infected and whether it’s causing more severe disease.

“The data that we need to understand is if … the strain of the virus is going to be more transmissible than the ones that we’ve seen so far,” she said. “There are some suggestions that it might be, but whether it will out compete, the Delta variants that we’ve seen so far here in B.C., is yet to be known. ”

It will take some weeks Dr Henry says to understand Omicron – is it causing more severe disease, is this strain more transmissible that ones we've seen so far, does evade vaccines, is it worse than Delta.#bcpoli #covid19 @CityNewsVAN

— LizaYuzda (@LizaYuzda) November 30, 2021

She adds it’s also not known if vaccines are less effective against Omicron.

Discovery of the Omicron variant has prompted border closures and heavier screening in Canada and abroad over fears it could prove more transmissible.

“As we have seen with every single variant that has arisen, we cannot stop this virus from transmitting. But what we can try and do is slow it down to help us understand exactly where the virus is,” Henry said.

But she is also encouraging people in B.C. to be cautious, reminding people to follow current health restrictions.

“We must anticipate and plan for the worst even as we hope that this strain will not cause the havoc that we’ve seen with some others,” she said.

“Tried and true public health measures work. We have seen this repeatedly over the last two years.”

The health officer says the spread of this variant is a reminder that we continue to live through this “global storm” and there is not equal access to vaccination but there should be to “get through this.”

COVID-19 infections recorded Tuesday

On Tuesday, 358 COVID-19 infections were recorded in the province.

Out of the total number of cases recorded Tuesday, Fraser Health is accounting for 107, 53 were from Vancouver Coastal Health, 85 were in Interior Health, 56 were in Northern Health and 57 cases were detected in Island Health.

Of the 2,889 active cases in B.C. 300 people are in hospital including 104 in critical care. Both of those numbers are down from Monday.

A day after invitations to book COVID-19 shots for kids five to 11 in B.C., the province is now including kids five and up in the daily updated vaccine data. According to a statement, over 84 per cent of all eligible adults and children have their first dose, and over 81 per cent are fully vaccinated.

Meanwhile, 10 per cent of people 12 and up have received their booster shot.

The outbreak at Abbotsford Regional Hospital in the Fraser Health region has been declared over.

There are a total of five facilities with ongoing outbreaks, including:

Long-term care: George Derby Centre (Fraser Health); and Peace Villa (Northern Health).

Acute care: Ridge Meadows Hospital (Fraser Health); and St. Paul’s Hospital (Vancouver Coastal Health).

Assisted or independent living: Laurier Manor (Northern Health).