B.C. reports its first case of COVID-19 Omicron variant | Globalnews.ca

B.C. has recorded its first case of Omicron, Tuesday.

B.C. provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry said it was someone in Fraser Health who travelled to Nigeria.

The province will be doing full genome sequencing on all COVID-19 cases, Henry added.

“We can be confident we are not seeing widespread of this variant in B.C. yet,” she said.

“Where vaccination is low it can spread rapidly. The new variant reminds us we are in a global storm and it is not equal everywhere. There is still a lot we don’t know about the Omicron.”

Both Henry and B.C. Health Minister Adrian Dix Dix told reporters on Monday the province will not be putting in specific Omicron-related restrictions nor will be altering the booster shot program.

The COVID-19 briefing will be carried live at 1:30 pm on BC1, the Global BC Facebook page and here on the Global BC website.

The latest variant, first reported last week, has led the federal government to restrict travel from countries in southern Africa, and the B.C. government to require additional testing for those who have already arrived.

About 900 to 1,000 travellers have arrived in Canada from southern Africa in the past few days. Of those, 204 have arrived in B.C.

“We are doing what we need to do, which is everyone who has returned from African countries in question get a PCR test,” Health Minister Adrian Dix told reporters.

The World Health Organization said Monday that the heavily mutated Omicron variant is likely to spread internationally and poses a “very high” risk of infection surges that could have “severe consequences” in some places.

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B.C. government monitoring new Omicron COVID-19 variant

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says there “may be more” Canada needs to do as it reckons with the newly discovered threat of the Omicron variant.

Five cases of the Omicron COVID-19 variant have been confirmed in Canada to date.

“Obviously, we’re watching very, very closely the situation with Omicron. We know that even though Canada has very strong border measures now — we need vaccinations to come to Canada, we need pre-departure tests, we do testing on arrival,” Trudeau told reporters as he walked into a Tuesday cabinet meeting.

“There may be more we need to do and we’ll be looking at it very carefully.”

READ MORE: Targeted travel bans ‘too late’ to stop Omicron COVID-19 variant, experts say

Canada has already taken some steps to batten down its borders in response to worries about the newly discovered Omicron variant. On Friday, the government banned travellers from seven African countries: South Africa, Mozambique, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Lesotho and Eswatini.

–with files from Rachel Gilmore

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