Public Health officials believe any cases of COVID-19 related to community spread in the province are likely as a result of the B117 variant.
568 cases have been linked to the latest outbreak in the metro region and of those swabs taken, 88 have tested positive for the UK variant.
Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Janice Fitzgerald says not all swabs have been sent off for whole-genome sequencing but those that have, all turned out to be the variant.
Whole-genome sequencing is the analysis of the entire genomic DNA sequence of a cell at a single time, providing the most comprehensive characterization of the genome.
Genome is the entire genetic material of an organism.
It was hoped that the province would have the capacity to do whole-genome sequencing locally by the end of last month, but that’s been put off until possibly the middle of March according to Health Minister John Haggie.
He says two new PCR machines are now being fitted, validated and calibrated this week. The staff who would normally have been involved in the whole-genome sequencing activity have been diverted to that activity for the time being.
Story courtesy of VOCM.