Winnipeg Free Press By: Danielle Da Silva and Dylan Robertson | Posted: 7:00 PM CST Tuesday, Feb. 16, 2021 Winnipeg Free Press A highly contagious variant of COVID-19, which first appeared in the United Kingdom, was mistakenly suspected in seven COVID-19 cases on a northern First Nation because it shares the same markers as a "Manitoba variant" of the virus. Over the weekend, there were concerns the B.1.1.7 mutation had arrived on the remote Pauingassi First Nation in the thick of a COVID-19 outbreak. On Tuesday, chief provincial public health officer Dr. Brent Roussin said the seven cases had been processed by the National Microbiology Lab and came back negative for the U.K. variant.