Ontario reports 1,969 COVID-19 cases, confirms first South African COVID variant
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Ontario has confirmed its first case of the South African variant of COVID-19.
Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. David Williams said the case was identified in a Peel Region resident with no known travel link.
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“I would doubt if it’s going to be our last one,” Williams said Monday. “And also we have not seen the Brazilian (variant) yet but it would not surprise me if we did see the Brazilian one in the future as well.”
Peel Public Health said the case involves an adult male living in Mississauga who has not travelled and is now recovering at home.
“We are starting to see our cases plateau and community spread of this variant may change this suddenly,” Peel Region Medical Officer of Health Dr. Lawrence Loh said in a statement Monday. “I urge all residents to continue to strictly follow Public Health guidelines and help break the chains of transmission.”
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There have also been 69 confirmed cases of the United Kingdom variant, many linked to the Roberta Placing nursing home outbreak in Barrie, he said.
The UK variant is known to be more contagious, while the South African variant passes on a higher viral load.
Public health officials are watching the spread of the variants carefully as they determine whether to life province-wide lockdowns that are scheduled to end Feb. 10, Williams said.
Other countries have reopened only to see COVID-19 numbers spike due to a variant, he said.
“We don’t want to open up and then just crash,” he said. “We’re encouraged that maybe our stay-at-home directions and measures are holding the UK variants and maybe some of these other variants at bay.”
Ontario recorded 1,969 new cases of COVID-19 Monday, an “overestimate” of about 300 cases due to a data issue at the City of Toronto, public health officials say.
There were another 36 deaths linked to the pandemic for a total of 6,224 lives lost.
Associate Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Barbara Yaffe said the number of new cases in general in the province continues to drop.
“Overall, there is reason for some optimism,” Yaffe said.
Ontario has now administered 341,900 first doses of COVID-19 vaccine, and 70,293 residents have received the required two doses for full vaccination.
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