Dr. Bonnie Henry (Province of B.C. photo)

By Liam Verster

Omicron in B.C.

First Omicron variant confirmed in B.C.

Nov 30, 2021 | 2:01 PM

The first case of the COVID-19 Omicron variant has been confirmed in B.C.

Dr. Bonnie Henry, provincial health officer, said the infected individual is in the Fraser Health region, and they had just returned from a trip to Nigeria.

“They are isolating, and public health is, as we do with every case, following up with them and their contacts at this time,” said Henry during Tuesday’s COVID-19 update.

B.C.’s top doctor said the province, in collaboration with Health Canada, identified 204 British Columbians who were in affected areas recently.

“The quarantine service, working with our teams, have connected with all these individuals over the past few days, and they have been sent for PCR testing and are in isolation.”

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She noted that the province has bolstered it’s genome testing program recently, and whole genome sequencing is being used to test people who have travelled internationally, which is how B.C.’s first Omicron case was confirmed.

“We are going to be continuing doing whole genome sequencing on 100 per cent of our clinical samples as we have been doing,” said Henry.

“And I will say as well, that we did, especially when this new variant became known, we did look back at all of the whole genome sequences that we have, and this process helps us understand how the virus has evolved.”

Henry added she’s confident this variant has not been linked to widespread transmission in B.C. as of yet, but did acknowledge that mutations can arise when the virus is able to spread, and encouraged people to protect themselves and prevent further transmission through vaccination .

She noted that there are still lots of unknowns related to the Omicron variant, and that finding answers to key questions surrounding transmittability and vaccine effectiveness may take some weeks to achieve.

“This will entail careful surveillance, which is one of the things we are doing in Canada and here in B.C.; and enhanced whole genome sequencing; and epidemiologic studies to help us understand who is being infected, whether it’s causing more severe disease.” said Henry.

“These are the things, the date, that we need to understand if this strain of the virus is going to be more transmittable than the ones we have seen so far. There are some suggestions that it might be, but whether it will out-compete the Delta variant that we have seen so far here in B.C. is yet to be known.”

She added that it’s still unknown whether the Omicron variant causes more severe illness than other strains, if it is resistant to the vaccinations, or if it can lead to serious re-infections, and that more research from around the world is needed to answer those questions.

The Government of Canada has issued new travel restrictions in an effort to slow the spread of Omicron while that research work can be done.

Henry added that current public health measures, including vaccinations, masking and physical distancing have proven to slow the transmission of the virus, and encourages people to continue to follow those measures at this time.

Other cases of the Omicron variant has been confirmed in Ontario, Quebec and Alberta.