Ontario, Quebec keep downward case trend; variants cause concern

TORONTO

Amid concerns about the emergence of variant strains, new COVID-19 infections maintained a downward trend in Canada’s two most populous provinces on Wednesday, although authorities reported more than 100 new deaths from the disease.

Ontario recorded another 49 deaths even as its daily case count continued an ongoing decline, with 1,670 new cases recorded. Quebec, which saw 53 more COVID-19-related deaths, reported 1,328 new cases.

Public health officials have raised concerns about the emergence of variants of the novel coronavirus, believed to be far more contagious. While the numbers of confirmed cases remained small, testing has only just begun to ramp up.

“It is a huge concern particularly at this point of the pandemic, when we are seeing downward trending of daily new cases across the country,” said Dr. Nazeem Muhajarine, an epidemiologist at the University of Saskatchewan.

“This could actually see those trending down, reversing and going up again.”

One public health unit in Ontario is urging anyone who travelled outside the region to get tested for COVID-19 given the new, more aggressive variants.

The medical officer of health for the Kingston, Frontenac and Lennox and Addington said a person infected with a new strain contracted the virus through community spread elsewhere in Ontario. However, the case is apparently unrelated to an outbreak at a longterm care home in Barrie, Ont., driven by the variant known as B.1.1.7., that has infected 200 people.

Quebec said on Wednesday it would not challenge a court order exempting the homeless from a provincewide curfew. Premier Francois Legault had previously refused the exemption after a man was found dead this month in a portable toilet in Montreal near a homeless shelter.

“Since the start of the curfew, our desire has been for people experiencing homelessness to be guided to the right resources and not to judicialize them,” said Lionel Carmant, the junior health minister.

While Manitoba — with 94 new reported cases and four deaths — saw its positive-infection rate fall, public health officials were grappling with several hot spots elsewhere in the country. Those include the Toronto area and Edmunston in northwestern New Brunswick, where doctors warned the pandemic virus could spiral out of control quickly.