Another COVID-19 variant has been detected in Windsor-Essex and two more lives have been lost.
The Windsor Essex County Health Unit reported a man in his 40s and a woman in her 70s passed away after contracting the virus. There have been 411 deaths in the region connected to COVID-19.
Of the 550 cases involving variants of concern, two have now been identified as the South African B.1.351 variant. This is the first time this variant has been detected in Windsor-Essex.
“Based on the available scientific data, the South African variant is more transmissible than the original sars-cov-2 virus. We don’t know if it leads to more severe disease, but we do know that the UK variant leads to more severe disease,” said Medical Officer of Health Dr. Wajid Ahmed. “The key impact for this particular variant of concern is that all the available vaccines may not be as effective for this particular variant of concern.”
The B.1.1.7 variant, first identified in the U.K., has been identified 477 times. There are currently 133 active cases involving variants of concern.
On Tuesday, the health unit reported 49 more people tested positive for the virus. Among the new infections, 18 are connected to previously confirmed cases, eight were acquired in the community, and one case was travel-related outside of North America. Case and contact management staff continue to investigate 22 cases. There are 461 active infections at this time.
Local hospitals are treating 17 patients who are positive for the virus, and two of those patients are in the intensive care unit.
As of Tuesday morning, 123,069 people in Windsor-Essex had received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.
