By Roy L Hales

The new COVID 19 variant reached Vancouver Island.

According to a Ministry of Health statement released Sunday, “The individual, who resides in the Island Health region, returned to BC from the UK on flight AC855 on Dec. 15, 2020.”

Photo credit: Nanaimo by Brian Chow vis Flickr (CC BY SA, 2.0 License)

Nanaimo resident may have contracted the new COVID variant

CTV news suggests this may be the person that a flight exposure warning from the BC Centre for Disease Control (BCCDC) mentions landing at the Vancouver International Airport. An infected person was on a Dec. 15 Air Canada flight 855 from London to Vancouver.

Another exposure warning from the BCCDC indicates an infected person travelled from the Vancouver airport to the city of Nanaimo.

This individual developed symptoms while in quarantine and was tested immediately, according to the statement. The test came back positive on Dec.19, 2020.

Variant does not appear to have spread

In speaking with CTV News, Dr. Henry said the person’s infection “does not appear to have spread.”

“The person was maintaining their quarantine … (and has) very few close contacts so we’re monitoring them very carefully,” she said.

Sunday’s statement also said, “It is important to note there is no evidence that the new COVID-19 variant is more likely to cause severe illness, nor is there evidence to suggest the Health Canada-approved vaccines will be any less effective against the new variant.”

Screenshot from Dec 24th, showing the numbers going down within Island Health

Numbers are going down

The numbers are going down again on Vancouver Island and, on December 24th,  there were only 13 active cases in North Vancouver Island, and 65 throughout the whole of Island Health.