Page 29 - Roberta Place News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

Roberta Place is located on Essa Road in Barrie's south end. Raymond Bowe/BarrieToday There is now evidence a COVID-19 variant has reached Simcoe County and may have led to the devastating outbreak at Roberta Place in south-end Barrie that has now claimed 19 lives. Laboratory testing has identified a COVID variant in six swabs from the Essa Road long-term care home. The variant strain testing is a two-part test. At this time, the first test indicates a "very high probability" that they are of a variant strain of concern. The second part of the test is a whole genome sequencing test to det...

A Barrie, Ont. long-term care home is facing a possible outbreak of a variant strain of the novel coronavirus after laboratory testing identified it in six swabs.

Last Updated Thursday, January 21, 2021 7:22AM EST Preliminary cases of a COVID-19 variant have been discovered at a long-term care home in Barrie that is currently combating an outbreak of the deadly virus. Laboratory testing has identified a variant of the novel coronavirus in six swabs at Roberta Pace, according to the Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit (SMDHU). “The variant strain testing is a two part test, and at this time, the first test indicates a very high probability that they are of a variant strain of concern. The second part of the test is a whole genome s...

  BARRIE, ONT. -- The Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit (SMDHU) believes it's possible that a COVID-19 variant found in several swab tests at a Barrie, Ont., long-term care home, where 25 residents have died, may be in the community. On Thursday morning, Dr. Colin Lee, SMDHU associate medical officer of health, said while the variant had yet to be identified, it has proven to be more infectious and a real cause for concern. "I think everyone is a little more fearful today than they were yesterday morning. This is more contagious. It's here. There's a good chance that it's going to slow...

The health unit reports a dip in the daily number of COVID-19 cases across Simcoe Muskoka on Wednesday, with 47 new infections, but the death toll continues to reach new heights.