Highly contagious COVID strain yet to appear in Manitoba

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This article was published 09/01/2023 (1011 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Manitoba health officials have not yet recorded any cases of an emerging, highly contagious COVID-19 variant that is taking over in other countries.

The XBB.1.5 variant, another descendant of the Omicron variant, is the most contagious strain of the virus yet and has already arrived in Canada.

There were 42 cases confirmed across Canada via genomic sequencing as of Monday, but those numbers are expected to rise by the end of this week because of a holiday data lag from provinces and territories, the Public Health Agency of Canada stated.

None of the confirmed cases are from Manitoba, Health Minister Audrey Gordon said Monday when asked about XBB.1.5 during an unrelated news conference. The province is tracking it, she said.

“We are always paying attention to what is happening in public health. I have regular briefings with our provincial chief public health officer Dr. (Brent) Roussin; I have one this week, and we’re paying close attention to what’s happening, not just here in Manitoba, but around the world and nationally as well,” Gordon said.

Researchers are still gathering data to determine how severe XBB.1.5 infections are. The World Health Organization is in the process of updating its global assessment of the variant from last fall and is aware of rapid spread in the United States, according to a recent statement on the WHO’s website. As of early October, the XBB subvariant had been detected in 35 countries.

katie.may@freepress.mb.ca