Second case of the South African COVID-19 variant found in Alberta

CALGARY (660 NEWS) — Alberta has confirmed its second case of the South African COVID-19 variant.

Alberta was the first province in Canada to discover the mutation back on Jan. 8, after a person travelling contracted the virus.

The second case was also found in a traveller who returned from abroad.

The South African strain is more contagious than the original COVID-19 variant and is similar to the U.K. mutation.

To date, Alberta has detected five cases of the U.K. variant. Two close contacts of this variant have tested positive for COVID but have not been confirmed with the U.K. strain.

There has been no evidence of any public exposure.

The province continues to monitor all COVID-19 positive samples with a proportion of those going for additional testing.

Alberta’s Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Deena Hinshaw said during Thursday’s COVID-19 update, that there are two types of tests done to see if there are any kinds of genetic variations.

The first type of testing, which can be a lengthy process, involves genetically sequencing the entire virus which not only helps identify any variants of concern but also helps to determine if any changes have occurred in the virus from Alberta.

“That’s been done since the beginning of the pandemic,” Hinshaw said.

“We’ve been doing a certain proportion of our samples every week and we are moving to increase that number of weekly tests with the full genetic sequencing.”

There is also a faster form of testing which the province is looking to scale up, Hinshaw added.

“We are planning by the end of this month to be able to test 100 positive samples every day in a targeted way that would help us identify whether or not a variant of concern is present,” she said.

“This test would identify either of those two variants of concern.”