[ad_1]
Article content continued
Saad said WRH officials are working very closely with Windsor-Essex County Health Unit officials and continue to assess the changing virus.
Dr. Wajid Ahmed, medical officer of health with the WECHU, said while there is no lab-based evidence that Windsor-Essex is dealing with a new strain of COVID-19, “that doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.” Neither provincial nor federal labs — which typically do “more detailed analysis” — have notified the WECHU about a mutation of the virus detected locally.
However, starting Monday, the federal government implemented a 72-hour travel ban on flights from the U.K. in an effort to keep a highly contagious new strain identified there.
“Because the mode of transmission is not felt to be any different than it was earlier, most of what we’re telling people is to just be very strict with those public health measures,” said Saad. “There’s not much more that we can do,” he said.
But with the Christmas holiday fast approaching, “People will want to get together, there’s no question, but it is so easy for this virus to transmit now compared to wave one that even less than 15 minutes of contact with somebody … that’s infected, it’s likely to spread very quickly through that family,” Saad warned.
There does appear to be a silver lining to the mutated virus.
“We can take solace in knowing that it doesn’t appear to be more deadly and that the target for the vaccine appears to still be an effective target,” Saad said. “Those are two things that I think are positives, (despite) the fact that it is more contagious.”
— With files from Taylor Campbell
jkotsis@postmedia.com
[ad_2]
Source link
