A more contagious strain of COVID-19 may be spreading rapidly through the Simcoe-Muskoka region, public health officials said Tuesday after testing showed 99 more people likely had a variant of the virus.
Last Updated Wednesday, January 27, 2021 5:03AM EST The Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit said initial screening results for another 99 people have come back positive for a “variant of concern.” The SMDHU said the 99 were discovered in data from a point of prevalance study conducted by Public Health Ontario, where all positive samples from Jan. 20 are being tested for the three main COVID-19 variants of concern, including variants first detected in the United Kingdom, Brazil, and South Africa. The public health unit said while most of the 99 cases have a link to the outbreak at Roberta Place, a long-term care home in Barrie where six cases of the UK variant have already been confirmed, two individuals have no links to the facility.