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The Canadian government issued this public information release on the new string of the most transmissible COVID-19 variant.
The Government of Canada has a monitoring program with the provinces and territories to identify new variants of COVID-19 in Canada, such as those identified in the United Kingdom and South Africa.
While early data suggest that these new variants may be more transmissible, to date there is no evidence that they cause more serious disease or have any impact on the antibody response or the effectiveness of the vaccine. More research is required to confirm these findings, and the Canadian and global medical, public health and research communities are actively evaluating these mutations.
The National Microbiology Laboratory of the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) monitors Canadian cases of COVID-19 with the provinces and territories through ongoing analysis of genomic databases in Canada. Through this ongoing national follow-up, two confirmed cases have been identified in Ontario of the variant seen in the UK.
As monitoring continues, other cases of this variant and other worrisome variants are expected to be found in Canada. Furthermore, as these two cases did not travel outside of Canada, it is important to follow public health measures and limit contacts with others, to reduce the transmission of the virus and any of its variants in the communities. The best way to prevent infection with any variant of COVID-19 is to follow public health measures.
To reduce the risk of importation of the virus and any of its variants, Canada has implemented travel restrictions and border measures since March 2020, including mandatory quarantine. These rigorous quarantine measures are among some of the strongest in the world. Less than 2% of all cases reported in Canada are from people who traveled outside of Canada.
All travelers must present their quarantine plan to the quarantine officer at the point of entry into Canada, and those with an inappropriate plan are directed to a federal quarantine facility. PHAC monitors travelers for quarantine compliance and uses law enforcement officials to verify compliance during the 14-day quarantine. People who do not meet the quarantine requirements can face fines of up to $ 750,000 or six months in prison.
On December 20, in response to concerns about the UK COVID-19 variant, the Government of Canada also suspended all flights from the UK for 72 hours, subsequently extended until January 6 at 11:59 p.m. Since then, travelers have been asked additional health screening questions to help identify whether their travel itinerary included a country of interest that reported this variant in the last 14 days prior to showing up at a Canadian port of entry.
All travelers will have their quarantine plan reviewed by a quarantine officer and, if it is not suitable, they will be asked to quarantine themselves at a federal quarantine center. Travelers who arrived in Canada from a country of interest before December 20 are reminded to complete their full quarantine period and to get tested even if symptoms are mild and to report their travel history to local testing centers .
The Government of Canada continues to discourage non-essential travel to other countries and recommends extra caution if you must travel to the UK or South Africa. Restrictions are changing rapidly and can be imposed by countries with little warning, disrupting travel plans. If people choose to take non-essential travel outside of Canada, they may be forced to stay outside of Canada longer than expected.
