Quebec confirms first case of B.1.617 variant, in the Haute-Mauricie region

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Quebec has identified its first case of the B.1.617 variant of COVID-19 that originated in India and is believed to be fuelling the pandemic surge in that country.

The case was identified in a patient in the Mauricie region, north of Trois-Rivières, officials with the Institut national de la santé du Québec (INSPQ) confirmed Wednesday.

The patient, who had been vaccinated two months ago, tested positive for COVID-19 roughly two weeks ago. The sample was sent to the provincial laboratory for genetic sequencing to determine whether it was among the variants of concern. Under Quebec protocol, the results for any patient who has been vaccinated and later tests positive for COVID-19 are sent to provincial laboratories to undergo genetic sequencing tests to identify possible variants. Those tests take one to three weeks to carry out.

“We have a confirmed case of B.1.617 in the Mauricie,” Michel Roger, head of Quebec’s public health laboratory, told the Montreal Gazette.

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Officials said they are not yet certain how the variant was introduced into Quebec. Later Wednesday, British Columbia reported 39 cases of the B.1.617 variant.

The health department for the region, the CIUSSS de la Mauricie-et-du-Centre-du-Québec, was advised of the positive case on Tuesday, Roger said.

The patient had already been in quarantine when tested because of a positive case in their home, said Julie Michaud, spokesperson for the regional health department. The department is now investigating to determine the origin of the variant. The patient has since recovered from their bout of COVID-19. No further information on the patient is being released.

Variants of COVID-19 have been quickly gaining the upper hand over the original strain of the disease in Quebec, accounting for close to 100 per cent of transmitted versions in some regions.

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In Montreal, variants account for roughly 70 per cent of cases. To date, the variant B.1.1.7, which originated in the U.K., is by far the most prevalent, but the B.1.351 variant from South Africa has dominated in the Abitibi region. Other variants identified in small numbers in the province are the P.1, first sequenced in Brazil, and the B.1.525 that is believed to have originated in Nigeria.

According to Bloomberg News, the record-breaking number of cases in India is thought to be fuelled by the new variant called B.1.617. Canadian officials, including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Quebec public health director Horacio Arruda, said they are debating limiting flights from India, as jurisdictions including the U.K and Hong Kong are doing. Canada’s chief public health officer Dr. Theresa Tam said on Wednesday they are looking into the question of flights from India, because of the variant of interest emanating from there, but also because of the “massive resurgence in that country.”

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The Canadian government argues it uses a broader approach in order to target travellers from all countries, including pre-boarding tests, tests on arrival and a government mandated quarantine. But with India recording nearly 300,000 cases on Wednesday, and 2,000 deaths, many in Canada and in Ontario in particular, are calling for restricting flights.

India’s health and welfare ministry acknowledged the presence of the so-called “double mutant” at the end of March, but has yet to confirm whether it’s responsible for rising infections. “Higher transmissibility of this variant is not established as yet,” it said.

On Friday, Aparna Mukherjee, a scientist at the Indian Council of Medical Research — which works under India’s health ministry — told Bloomberg that B.1.617 is a variant of interest, but it “has not been stamped as a ‘variant of concern,’ so as to say that it is more lethal or more infectious.”

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Researchers are trying to determine whether B.1.617 is more deadly than other concerning variants. Evidence suggests that variants originating in Brazil and South Africa are more transmissible — spreading easily and quickly.

rbruemmer@postmedia.com

The National Post contributed to this report.

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