On Friday, February 12, provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry announced that a new Nigerian variant has been found in British Columbia. During Friday's press conference, Henry said the province has now confirmed 46 cases of "variants of concern" and an additional case of this newly discovered variant. Editor's Choice: This Super Simple Video Explains Who Can Get Canada's New Relief For Tax Debt (VIDEO) “ We aren't entirely clear yet whether this variant also has increased transmissibility or causes more severe illness. Dr. Bonnie Henry She referred to it as a "variant under investigation" instead of a "variant of concern" and noted that the case is a person in the Interior Health region. Henry said the person had recently travelled from Nigeria and is currently in isolation. This Nigeria-associated variant is labelled B.1.525 and is under "ongoing surveillance" by the BC Centre for Disease Control. Henry reported 445 new COVID-19 cases on Friday along with 10 more deaths. “We are trending in the right direction, pushing our curve down, but slowly. And we need to ensure our success sticks, which means staying the course with our layers of protection and continuing to follow all of the public health restrictions and guidance," she urged. Lab teams are working in Canada and internationally to learn more about the Nigerian variant and how it compares to the variants originally detected in the U.K. and South Africa.
