The fast-spreading U.K. COVID-19 variant has been confirmed at a Barrie, Ont., long-term-care home that has been struggling with a massive outbreak. A COVID-19 outbreak was declared at Roberta Place on Jan. 8, and has now spread to all but three of its 127 residents and 84 staff members. Public Health Ontario laboratory identified a variant of the virus in six samples on Wednesday and Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit said Saturday that a genome-sequencing test has confirmed the variant as the UK B.1.1.7. All three are thought to be more transmissible, the U.K. version has been found to be about 50 per cent more contagious. There have been 34 cases of variants confirmed in Canada in recent weeks, with 15 of them in Ontario, not including the now confirmed cases at Roberta Place.

Source: thestar January 23, 2021 17:48 UTC