The BC government has announced the province’s first confirmed case of the Omicron variant of COVID-19.
Dr. Bonnie Henry disclosed BC’s first Omicron case during Tuesday afternoon’s COVID-19 update – it was someone in Fraser Health who travelled to Nigeria.
At this time, this is the only confirmed case of Omicron in the province. The case has been confirmed in a returning traveller from Nigeria.
Henry says there has not been wide spread of Omicron in BC yet. The province is doing genome sequencing on all COVID cases.
““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,” said Henry.
In response to the latest variant, first reported last week, Canada imposed a travel ban on several countries within southern Africa including South Africa, Estwatini, Leostho, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Namibia.
As of this publication, there are 2,882 active cases in the province with 303 people in hospital.
