A race to contain COVID-19 variants — Sudbury medical officer of health talks about suspected case
'What we understand is with these variants, it takes less virus to actually be infected and develop symptoms'
Sudbury's medical officer of health says they will know within days the specifics of a suspected new kind of COVID-19 identified in the city.
Public Health Sudbury and Districts reports it was notified of the case on Sunday by Public Health Ontario.
Dr. Penny Sutcliffe says there are a number of mutations of COVID-19, and they are trying to figure which one it is.
"Three (variants) have been associated with increased transmissibility, not increased cause of severe illness or anything like that, but more transmissible," she said.
"What we understand is with these variants, it takes less virus to actually be infected and develop symptoms. The virus itself has a better binding [mechanism] to our immune system ... and can affect us more. It causes higher levels of virus in our bodies, which means that it's more easy to spread to others."
More cases means that, ultimately, there will be more people who will be more seriously ill.
"So [it's] not because the virus itself is more dangerous in that way, in terms of causing more severe disease, but it is more infectious," Sutcliffe said.
She notes it's only a matter of time before more COVID-19 variants bubble to the surface.
"So the detection of potential variants, putting a circle around that to make sure we're controlling it as much as we can, is really to slow down the introduction throughout the province of this variant," she said.
"As we've seen elsewhere throughout the world, this can spread very quickly and is very difficult to control. So in the view of public health, what we're doing right now is to contain [the virus] as much as possible."
That means people need to continue masking, distancing, washing hands, and getting tested.
"It's incredibly important always and even more so now with this new variant in the province."
Sutcliffe says not all COVID-19 cases are being subject to further testing.
"So if somebody has traveled internationally or if there's a super spreader event that seems to be going on, if someone is particularly ill, or it's not explainable the way we would normally see the course of a COVID-19 infection ... the sample should go on for further testing," she said.
"There is also testing done randomly by Public Health Ontario to get a better picture of what's going on. It is the relatively early days of these variants of concern. And so everybody is trying to understand what's happening."
The individual with the suspected variant travelled internationally and is currently in quarantine, Sutcliffe said.
"In this situation, there would not have been exposure or risk to others given our understanding of when their symptoms began. Of course, it's really important that we have everything under a microscope and that investigation is ongoing."
The automatic quarantine "has given us time to identify the possible variant and ensure it is not spread," she said.
"The rate at which these new variants spread is ... alarming as we have seen in other areas of the province and parts of the world. We need to do everything in our power to slow to the spread for as long as we can."