8 UK Variant Cases Have Been Confirmed In Quebec — This Is The Strategy To Keep It At Bay

At a press conference on Friday, Health Minister Christian Dubé said that the health ministry is closely following the emergence of the U.K. COVID-19 virus variant in Quebec.

In total, eight cases of the U.K. virus variant have been confirmed in the province as of Friday.

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We're very, very closely following the evolution of the new variants in Quebec.

Quebec Health Minister Christian Dubé

The first case of the U.K. variant in Quebec was found in December.

To date, Dubé said, only the U.K. variant has been detected in the province.

"No [cases] of the other variants from Brazil or South Africa have been detected as of now," confirmed Dubé. 

"It worries us but we are very vigilant [...] We want to delay, as long as possible, the presence of the new U.K. variant." 

The health ministry has three strategies to that end.

The first, the health minister said, is to limit contagion "in general."

"We need to stay very, very careful during the deconfinement. We need to take for granted that there are other variant cases."

Second, Quebec is "putting all efforts in place" to carry out contact tracing and "slow down" the emergence of virus variants.

And finally, "a proportion" of all positive tests are evaluated for a variant.

"We're asking all Quebecers to get tested when they have even the most minor symptom," Dubé concluded.

"The more we find positive cases quickly, the more we're able to trace them."

"That's how we're going to control the propagation of the virus."