No cases of new COVID-19 variant in BC

NORTHERN BC- Provincial Health Officer, Dr.Bonnie Henry says there is no evidence that shows the Omnicron COVID-19 Variant of Concern has been identified in the province. Henry adds the impact of this new VOC has not yet been identified, and the province will be closely monitoring the situation across the globe.

“The BC Centre for Disease Control’s public health lab has sequenced over 90,000 virus isolates in B.C. and will continue to use whole genome sequencing to monitor for all variants circulating in B.C., including this new VOC Omicron,” she stated.

This comes as 341 new cases of COVID-19 have been identified, which means BC’s daily case count has been in the 300 range for 6 days straight. 31 of the new cases were found in Northern Health, as the region now has 381 active cases. 38 people are in hospital in the North, 14 of whom are in ICU.