Ontario reports its first case of S. African variant

Peel Region resident has no history of travel or contact with a traveller

Ontario is reporting its first case of the so-called South African variant in a Peel Region resident.

No history of travel or known contact with a traveller has been found, said Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. David Williams.

Peel's public health unit continues to investigate the case, said Williams, and is handling next steps and contact management.

In addition to South Africa, 22 other countries have detected the variant thus far, Williams said. Six cases have been reported in Alberta and three in B.C., and some do not have a known history of travel.

Canada's first case of B.1.351, known as the South African variant, was discovered in Alberta on Jan. 8. At the time, the province's chief medical officer of health said the case involved a recent traveller, the person was in quarantine, and there was no evidence of spread to others.

South African data indicates that the variant quickly displaced other circulating lineages in the country, and it appears to have a higher viral load, which suggests that it may be more transmissible, Williams said.

“Currently, there is substantial uncertainty as to whether the South African variant causes a change in disease severity; however, studies are ongoing to describe the epidemiology of the new variant.”

As for Ontario's response, Williams pointed to the six-pronged plan unveiled by the province last week, which includes mandatory testing for international travellers arriving at Toronto's Pearson airport, effective Monday, and ramped-up capacity in the provincial lab network to screen all positive COVID -19 tests for known variants within several days, as of Feb. 3.

To date, 69 cases of the U.K. variant have been identified in Ontario, including three in Ottawa.

Protection against these variants involves the same methods employed to guard against COVID -19 transmission, generally.

“It remains essential that Ontarians continue to adhere to the stay-at-home order, and rigorously follow the basic public health measures that we've said,” Williams said.

He is doubtful this will be the only South African variant case in Ontario, and while another variant that emerged in Brazil hasn't yet been detected in the province, “it would not surprise me if we did see the Brazilian one in the future as well.”

On a more positive note, Barbara Yaffe, associate chief medical officer of health, reported that “we have been seeing a steady decrease in the number of cases,” with respect to the total number of infections reported since Thursday and similar time periods over January.

Outbreak totals, too, have dropped: 21 new ones were reported Monday, compared to 28 last Monday, and the seven-day outbreak count has declined by 35 over the last week.

However, the number of COVID-19 deaths in Ontario remains elevated, Yaffe said.

Although the numbers of hospitalizations and ICU patients have stabilized, “we would really like to see those numbers come down further.”

Meanwhile, the province announced that it is introducing a new temporary certificate that will allow school boards to employ eligible teachers-to-be when they've exhausted their list of occasional teachers. The move will allow the province to meet its staffing needs and help ensure classroom distancing can be maintained, Education Minister Stephen Lecce said.

Many schools are dealing with short-term staffing issues because of the pandemic, he said.

“Despite what some will say, there are not tens of thousands of teachers available to enter our schools and educate our students,” Lecce said. “To ensure we keep distancing in our classroom, we need to be creative.”