Officials in the Canadian province of Ontario said on Saturday they have discovered two confirmed cases of the new strain of coronavirus that first appeared in the United Kingdom (UK).
According to Reuters, officials identified the new variant in a Southern Ontario couple with no known travel history, exposure, or risky contact.
The report comes as the county instituted another lockdown, with 4,301 new COVID-19 cases reported in the past two days and more than 2,000 infections per day for 12 consecutive days.
“This further reinforces the need for Ontarians to stay at home as much as possible and to continue to follow all public health advice, including the provincial shutdown measures starting today,” said Dr. Barbara Yaffe, Ontario’s Associate Chief Medical Officer, in a statement Saturday, Reuters reported.
While experts are still looking at the origin and transmission of the new species, scientists think the variant is about 40 to 70 percent more transmittable than the original.
A study released this week through The Center for Mathematical Modeling of Infectious Diseases at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine estimated the rate at 56 percent more contagious.
Canada last week extended a ban on passenger flights from the UK until January 6 and expanded screening and control measures from South Africa due to the emergence of the new species.
It is unclear whether the vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech and approved by Canada and other countries earlier this month is effective in preventing this variant.
Modern said in a statement Wednesday that its vaccine is likely to be able to protect people from the new strain, adding that it planned to conduct tests to confirm the vaccine’s efficacy.
Canada on Wednesdays authorized use of Moderna’s coronavirus vaccine wide use, paving the way for the second vaccine to spread nationwide.
The vaccine is indicated for use in people 18 years of age or older. Moderna is conducting additional studies in children aged 12 and older so that the guideline can be revised in the future.
On Saturday, Canada had nearly 541,000 COVID-19 cases, with more than 14,700 fatalities as a result of the virus, according to data collected by Johns Hopkins University.
Various other countries, including Australia, Italy and the Netherlands have also reported cases of the new infectious strain.