Everything You Need To Know About COVID-19 Variants
How worried should we be? Claire Gagne Updated
Pedestrians in central London on January 8, 2021. (Photo: Tolga Akmen/AFP via Getty Images)
Almost exactly a year after the novel coronavirus was identified in Wuhan, completely changing the world as we know it, scary headlines are talking about new, faster-spreading variants of COVID-19. Here’s what you need to know about these new variants of COVID-19.
What’s the deal with mutations and variants?
First, let’s get some terms down. SARS-CoV-2 is the name of the virus that causes COVID-19 and it’s a strain of the coronavirus family of viruses. However, viruses are constantly mutating, or changing, and that’s what we’re seeing now of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. This is completely normal. “As viruses copy themselves [to reproduce], mistakes are made,” explains Dr. Sumontra Chakrabarti, an infectious disease specialist at Trillium Health Partners in Missi
Several Toronto area hospitals are redirecting temporarily redirecting paediatric inpatients requiring hospital admission to the Hospital for Sick Children as their facilities are facing overwhelming COVID-19 hospitalizations.
TORONTO An upcoming nightly curfew in Quebec is hogging the headlines, but some public health experts say it s another plank of Premier Francois Legault s new plan that other provinces should pay the most attention to. Legault announced Wednesday several new measures aimed at curbing the spread of the novel coronavirus in the province, where the COVID-19 curve has been rising sharply since late November. The measures include a curfew that will affect the vast majority of Quebecers. As of Saturday, anyone caught outside their home between 8 p.m. and 5 a.m. for any reason other than work, walking a pet within one kilometre of their home or visiting a pharmacy will be subject to a fine of up to $6,000.