Omicron is now the only strain of COVID-19 circulating in New Brunswick, and almost all cases are the highly transmitted sub-variant BA.2, according to the Department of Health.
No cases of the newer, even more infectious sub-variant of Omicron XE, which is a combination of BA.2 and BA.1, have yet been identified, said the province’s acting deputy chief health doctor.
But the province continues to introduce random positive cases to determine what options are spreading in the province, said Dr. Yves Leger.
“We know that the pandemic is a global event and that, as we have seen so far, we will continue to see new options emerge.
As the virus continues to spread, it is adapting and changing, Leger said.
“It simply came to our notice then [the new variants] it will not necessarily be more portable or certainly … cause a more serious illness, “he said.
“But we will continue to monitor this very closely and make sure we have the capacity to detect and test it in the countryside.
Dr Yves Leger, acting provincial deputy medical officer, said New Brunswick had seen BA.2 cases “almost exclusively” in the past week or two. (Pascal Reich Nogg / Radio Canada)
BA.2 is the dominant subvariant worldwide, accounting for almost 94 percent of all sequenced cases, according to the World Health Organization.
It was first confirmed in the Moncton area, Zone 1, in February.
Early research shows that BA.2 is five to seven times more portable than the original strain of COVID-19, first discovered in Wuhan, China, or approximately twice as portable than the first Delta variant. at the end of 2020 and the beginning of 2021
But so far, evidence suggests he is less likely to cause serious illness.
“What we’ve seen here for sure in the last week or two is almost exclusively BA.2,” Leger said.
The increase in the sub-option in the province underscores the need for people to be vaccinated and receive their third dose if they have not already done so, he said.
The XE, which first opened in the UK on January 19, is 10 percent more marketable than BA.2, which is 60 percent more marketable than BA.1, officials said.
The WHO is also monitoring other Omicron sub-variants, including BA.1.1, BA.3 and more recently BA.4 and BA.5, to assess whether they are more infectious or dangerous.
Omicron triples the number of infections in Canada, the study found
The number of adult Canadians infected with COVID-19 during the fifth wave of the Omicron-powered pandemic has tripled over the previous four waves, according to a recent study led by Toronto researchers.
Nearly 30 percent of adults – approximately nine million people – were infected during the first wave of Omicron infections (BA.1) earlier this year, compared to just 10 percent during the previous four waves, Action to Beat Coronavirus ( Ab- C) established study.
Of those nine million infections, nearly one million are among the nation’s 2.3 million unvaccinated adults, representing 40 percent of all unvaccinated adults, according to the findings in a letter to the editor of The New England Journal of Medicine on Wednesday.
Canadian adults with three doses of the COVID-19 vaccine had stronger immunity to the virus than those with lower doses, the study found. (Jenny Evans / Getty Images)
“If we take into account the fact that pediatric studies have estimated that the proportion of infections in children is as high or higher than in adults, and that new Omicron subvariants continue to infect Canadians in the ongoing sixth wave, there are now millions more. to add to the total number of Ab-C studies, “said Catherine Hankins, co-chair of Canda’s COVID-19 immunity group, in a press release.
“In short, a significant portion of the Canadian population already has hybrid immunity – defined as a combination of past COVID-19 infection with between one and three doses of COVID-19 vaccine.
Each dose of vaccine and previous infection boosts the immune response, according to the study, a collaboration between Unity Health Toronto, the Dala Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto, the Angus Reid Institute and the Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute in Sinai Health.
Canadian adults with three doses of vaccine and past infection with COVID-19 have the highest protection, it found.
The study was conducted using blood samples from more than 5,000 Canadian adults between January 15 and March 15.
Researchers have already started the next phase of the study, which includes sub-option BA.2. They examined approximately 1,300 Canadian adults who were not infected with the original version of Omicron BA.1 to determine if they were infected with BA.2 between March and June.
Ab-C is tracking the pandemic in Canada through blood sampling and periodic surveys of experiences since May 2020. It is funded by the federal government through its COVID-19 Immunity Task Force.
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