The Thunder Bay District Health Unit is stressing vigilance in the rise of COVID-19 variant cases.
As of Wednesday 25 cases have been identified as positive for a variant, which includes 21 cases within the last two weeks.
“If you have to travel in and outside of the health region, be very mindful and take pre-cautions,” DeMille mentioned. “You could be exposed, especially in areas where there might be more cases of COVID-19 as well as variant cases of the virus.”
The medical professional added ten variant cases have been tied to the Musselwhite mine outbreak.
DeMille noted two variant subtypes have been identified, including the B.1.1.7 from the United Kingdom.
“It’s hard to say that any one of the variants have different symptoms than COVID-19,” mentioned DeMille. “Anyone of the regular symptoms of COVID-19 can be present in someone who’s infected, but until that person has a test it’s hard to tell.”.
The health unit screens all positive samples for mutations associated with variants of concern (VOC).
