FILE PHOTO - Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry speaks to reporters as Health Minister Adrian Dix looks on at a COVID-19 briefing in Victoria, Oct. 19, 2021.

Image Credit: SUBMITTED / Province of B.C.

There have now been five cases of the Omicron variant of COVID-19 detected in B.C.

Three of those are in people who were fully vaccinated and two in people who were unvaccinated, provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry said in a news briefing today, Dec. 7.

All five cases have been people travelling from African countries and Iran, and some were from the time before rules were put in place requiring people to be fully vaccinated when travelling from other countries into Canada.

“We have a number of others that are suspect and pending, and are likely to turn out to be this new variant as well,” Dr. Henry said. “That is not a surprise. Once we start to look for it, we know we’re likely to find it. We know this virus travels quickly and it travels in people and when people move, the virus strain moves with them.”

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All those who tested positive to the Omicron variant had either mild cases or no symptoms at all, Dr. Henry said.

Health authorities are contacting 300 to 400 people who came into Canada from African countries before mandatory COVID testing was required.

The first case was detected in the Fraser Health region. Dr. Henry did not say where the other four cases were.

In the meantime, the province is dealing with more than 300 new COVID cases a day and has had to ship intensive care patients with COVID out of the Northern Health region to hospitals in the Lower Mainland and on Vancouver Island.

“While all the discussion about the Omicron variant is important, and the work being done on that questions here in British Columbia and nationally and across the world is significant, we need to stay focused on what is here and now and what’s in B.C. right now is the Delta variant,” Health Minister Adrian Dix said at the same news briefing.

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“It’s the Delta variant that’s seizing on the unvaccinated to live. It’s the Delta variant that’s seizing on the unvaccinated to spread. And it’s the Delta variant that is causing patients with COVID-19 to be transported hundreds of miles away from their families for care. It’s the Delta variant that affects our hospitals, has an impact on our surgeries and,, of course it has an impact and exhausts our health care teams.”

Dr. Henry stressed the need to continue to practice safe anti-COVID behaviours like washing hands, wearing masks in indoor spaces, getting vaccinated and staying home when unwell.

While she doesn’t plan on imposing any new restrictions on social gatherings over Christmas, she did advise that those gatherings should be kept small.

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