The mutated version of COVID-19 that was initially detected in the United Kingdom has now been discovered in Canada. An unnamed couple from Durham, Ontario, a community of 3,000 that is located 100 miles northwest of Toronto, has contracted it and has been placed in isolation.
As a result, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has announced that all passenger flights from the United Kingdom to Canada will remain suspended until at least Jan. 6. However, it is highly likely that others in Canada are already infected with this strain since the couple has “no known travel history, exposure or high-risk contacts,” according to Barbara Yaffe, Ontario’s acting chief medical officer.
Regardless, Ontarians were already set to start a lockdown on Dec. 26, which did commence as scheduled. Yaffe added that the discovery of this mutation in her province “further reinforces the need for Ontarians to stay home as much as possible and continue to follow all public health advice.”
Those in southern Ontario will participate in a 28-day lockdown while individuals in more sparsely populated northern Ontario will take part in a 14-day lockdown. They may be extended as the situation in both areas will be reassessed prior to their planned ends.
During these lockdowns, individuals are only allowed to participate in indoor events and social gatherings with others in their own household with the exception of those who live alone; they may interact with one other household during this period.
Ontario reported 2,159 new Covid cases on Christmas and 2,142 on Boxing Day, pushing the number of active cases in Canada’s most populated province past 20,000 for the first time. Throughout Canada, nearly 80,000 cases are active.
This new strain was first noticed in early December in the English county of Kent, which is about 60 miles east of London and the location of one end of the Channel Tunnel, a major transportation link between the U.K. and