Manitoba hasn’t increased screening for mutant COVID strains

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This article was published 05/02/2021 (1860 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

OTTAWA — Manitoba is screening only about five per cent of its positive COVID-19 samples for variant strains, and has no stated plan to ramp up that testing, unlike other provinces.

But that might not be such a bad thing, according to a local medical microbiologist.

“The idea of variants and the possibility that they transmit more readily has got people really spooked, so there’s a lot of pressure to identify this,” said University of Manitoba assistant professor Dr. Philippe Lagacé-Wiens.

“It feels a lot like panic, more than the scientific, reasoned approach.”

In recent weeks, highly contagious variants emerged in the U.K., South Africa and Brazil that have made their way to various points on the globe. Certain mutations might be more deadly, and could potentially infect people who have been vaccinated or have already recovered from a previous infection.

Manitoba has, so far, not detected any of the known variants, which have been identified in Saskatchewan and Ontario.

Manitoba currently sequences the genome of about five per cent of positive samples, which from last March to mid-January translated to 1,434 samples, though only 1,169 were of a sufficient quality to be analyzed.

The process involves breaking down samples into tens of thousands of pieces and then analyzing various parts, which takes about two weeks. The National Microbiology Lab sets protocols, and collects results from provinces.

Ontario and Quebec currently sequence five per cent of positive samples, but have pledged to double that sequencing to cover 10 per cent of positive cases within weeks.

Manitoba has not indicated it will follow suit.

“It would be premature to speak to this, as there are plans in place to scale up our variant detection processes in the coming days and weeks,” a provincial spokeswoman wrote.

“Only strong positives can be used to produce accurate results, and sequencing is very expensive and labour-intensive.”

Lagacé-Wiens works within Winnipeg hospitals but stressed he was not speaking on behalf of his employer.

He said sequencing requires hours of work, specific computers and costly reagents.

“We’re talking hundreds of dollars per attempt to do this,” he said.

“You’ll probably miss the early parts of it, if you’re only screening five per cent. But I don’t think we can push it much more than that with the technology that’s being used right now.”

Manitoba officials are getting a variety of samples to draw from, with tests taken at hospitals, testing centres, First Nations and provincial contractors — though not some of the private labs contracted by companies.

“We test for outbreaks, possible instances of reinfection, imported transmissions and some random sampling to keep track of how the virus changes,” a spokeswoman wrote.

Lagacé-Wiens noted the existing public-health measures around distancing, masks and washing hands are meant to prevent transmitting all forms of the coronavirus.

Similarly, treating patients with a variant strain follows the same protocol as any COVID-19 case.

Lagacé-Wiens said he can’t see much benefit in Manitobans learning about a variant circulating in the community, other than waking up people from pandemic fatigue.

dylan.robertson@freepress.mb.ca