N.B. COVID-19 roundup: Potential 'perfect storm' for omicron variant, says expert
CBC
A viral immunologist says New Brunswick and the rest of Canada could be in for a "perfect storm" with the COVID-19 omicron variant.
Michael Grant, from Memorial University in Newfoundland, says there's already a surge in infections with the delta variant.
Now, the new, highly infectious omicron variant is "spreading readily, even through the vaccinated population.
"And it's happening just as we enter a period where people will travel more, gather more, mostly indoors, and mix with an increasing number of people," he said.
"Unfortunately, this is the exact recipe for the bleak predictions we've been hearing."
New Brunswick announced its first three confirmed cases of omicron on Monday — one in the Moncton region, Zone 1, and two in the Miramichi region, Zone 7.
They are linked to the recent outbreak at St. Francis Xavier University in Antigonish, N.S., said Dr. Jennifer Russell, chief medical officer of health.
Four other cases in Zones 1 and 7 are directly linked to the confirmed three and presumed to be omicron, she told the COVID briefing.
"We fully expect to see more."
Omicron is at least 30 per cent more transmissible than the delta variant and has at least 40 mutations that allow it to spread more readily in people who have received two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine and in people who have had COVID-19, said Grant.
"That we know for sure."
It's still unclear whether it's more infectious because of something about the virus itself, or whether it's become able to evade the immunity that's present in the population, or a bit of both.
So far, it's infecting mostly young people who are partially immune and who have travelled, he said.
The worst impact could be once it gets into the more vulnerable population, such as the aged, those in long-term care homes, the immunocompromised, and those with co-morbidities.
This story is a collaboration between the Investigative Journalism Foundation and CBC Saskatchewan.
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