Photo: Government of Alberta

By Shane Clausing

COVID-19 variants now dominant strain

Variant of concerns now dominant COVID-19 strain in Alberta

Apr 8, 2021 | 5:46 PM

During her news conference on Thursday afternoon, Alberta’s chief medical officer of health, Dr. Deena Hinshaw announced that variants of concern are now the dominant strain of COVID-19 in Alberta.

“By far the most common strain is the U.K variant or B 1.1.7, which makes up 99 per cent of all of our variant cases confirmed to date,” said Dr. Hinshaw. “We have now reached the point where if you test positive, you should assume you have the U.K. B 1.1.7 variant.”

As a result of this, Dr. Hinshaw made changes to how AHS will handle contact tracing for all positive COVID-19 cases.

“Effective today, we will begin offering testing twice to close contacts of all confirmed cases, regardless of what kind of COVID strain they may have been exposed to,” explained Dr. Hinshaw.

“If you are a close contact you will be offered testing as soon as you are notified and if you test negative, you will be offered testing again ten days after your last exposure. By testing all close contacts twice, we have a better chance at quickly identifying new cases and stopping their spread.”

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Dr. Hinshaw also reminded Albertans who do test positive and have a tough time isolating themselves away from others to take advantage of the hotels the provincial government has set aside to help limit the spread of the disease.

She also pleaded with Albertans to continue to follow public health measures, such as no indoor gatherings and keeping six feet distance in order to help prevent further spread of any variants.

While the variants of concern became the dominant strain on Thursday, Dr. Hinshaw was able to provide some more positive news.

Last month, she signed an order that required extra testing and aggressive measures for all variant outbreaks in continuing care facilities. However, thanks to most facilities getting people vaccinated, Hinshaw rescinded that order on Thursday.

“The tough outbreak protocols will be implemented only when local medical officers of health deem it necessary. This pandemic has been hard on residents in these facilities, and this is a small step to not making it any harder than necessary.”

Dr. Hinshaw’s next in-person update will be Tuesday.