Dr. Hamidah Meghani, Halton Region's Medical Officer of Health, has provided a video update about COVID-19 and some "variants of concern" that have been identified in Ontario.
A variant is a "particular variant of a genetic virus," according to Dr. Meghani, (in this case, COVID-19) that has "several significant mutations or changes to a virus."
When a variant "affects disease spread, severity, tests used to detect the virus or the effectiveness of vaccines and treatments, it is called a variant of concern."
Currently, there are three notable variants of concern being monitored by Canada's federal government:
- B.1.1.7 variant (the United Kingdom variant)
- B.1.351 variant (the South Africa variant)
- P.1 variant (the Brazil variant)
There are currently 236 known cases of the B.1.1.7 UK variant in Ontario, and at least one case of the other two in the province.
Officials for Halton said this video will help residents, "Learn more about what they are, how many there are, what we are doing to respond and what you can do to help prevent the spread."
For the most up-to-date public health direction and information on COVID-19, please visit halton.ca/COVID19.