8 things to know about the coronavirus variant detected in Saskatchewan

The more contagious coronavirus variant first detected in the U.K. has now been found in two residents of Regina. What does it mean for people in Saskatchewan?

Jason Kindrachuk is offering some answers. Kindrachuk is a virologist, an associate professor and Canada Research Chair in emerging viruses at Winnipeg's University of Manitoba. He is currently also working at VIDO-InterVac in Saskatoon. 

Answers have been edited for length and clarity.

1. What should people in Saskatchewan be aware of now that this new virus variant is starting to show up? 

Kindrachuk: The most important is that this is still the same virus in many senses. It's changed a little bit, but really the properties as far as infection control still play a massive part in our being able to curb transmission.

The mutations are certainly concerning — that the virus has been able to, in some ways, adapt to humans. But at the end of the day, this is not a variant that can now permeate walls and go through glass and suddenly make it through masks and all those things. So we have to be cognizant of that.

All the infection prevention control measures that we've been using so far — and we certainly have all grown tired of hearing about — they still apply. 

2.  We've been hearing these new virus variants are more transmissible. What does that mean? 

Kindrachuk: So the COVID virus right now, it predominantly has been found, or likely exists, in wildlife. Now the virus is moving through humans and moving through really a new species [when it] hasn't done so in the past. So this is a time period where it's also somewhat adjusting to us.

What we're seeing right now are mutations that seem to give a better key to fit within the lock of ourselves. Right now what it looks like — at least for some of these mutations — [is] related to allowing, basically, that virus to come in and bind to our cells stronger.

What that means in regards to infection, I think we're still trying to fully understand, but [it] at least suggests that that's why we're seeing this increased transmissibility.

3. Are there more cases of this here that we just haven't found yet? 

Kindrachuk: The fact that we're not picking up more cases suggests that we're still [in the] very early stages of this. Now, does that mean today or tomorrow or the next day we're not going to pick up additional cases? We certainly can't say that, but at least at this point, it doesn't look like it's spreading broadly through the community yet. That being said, it moves through the community very rapidly once it starts to transmit. 

4. Why is there a two-week lag between when a COVID test is sent to be looked at and when the new virus variant is confirmed?

Kindrachuk: It's the complexity, unfortunately, of doing diagnostics....

That really all comes into play with a variant. If you want to actually go through and do the sequencing and actually go through that entire genome and go through the book of SARS-CoV-2, you'll basically pull it apart letter by letter. That, again, takes time. We have to appreciate that the time lags are not because there's a laziness or a lack in an idea of how serious it is. This is, unfortunately, the reality of doing these types of analysis. It just takes time.

5. Should we increase the amount of staff doing gene sequencing looking for the virus variant? 

Kindrachuk: We have to appreciate that all of this is a finite resource. We should, but we can't take away resources from testing and contact tracing in the communities right now. We have broad spread. It would be great if we could do all those things and just increase resources ... but do we have the people to be able to do that without sacrificing anything in regards to health care that's needed right now? So it's a very delicate balance. We have to work within those limits.

6. Should Saskatchewan be doing anything to prepare for the virus variant or to prevent it from spreading — such as Manitoba's restrictions? 

Kindrachuk: Manitoba had a really rough run, obviously. Through the fall time we saw what happened when a virus picks up steam.… 

So I think it's a tough, tough question of what to do here. Your transmission is still kind of moving through. We're seeing a lot of ebbs and flows in regards to the cases.

Again, we still have the power in our hands. If we want to try to reduce transmission, frankly, we know what to do. We just have to clamp down on it. But the province has to ensure that they also can carry out the testing and the tracing and the sequencing that's needed to be able to identify the variants as soon as they show up. 

7. Should people be double- or triple-masking? 

Kindrachuk: I'm not a public health expert, so you're going to take that with a grain of salt. But certainly I'd refer back to what we see as far as recommendations from different health regions across the globe, which is that triple-layer masks are probably the best that we can do right now in terms of kind of broad use for the public and certainly availability for the public.

If somebody wants to use a second mask, certainly they can, but I would argue that we have to ensure that we're really wearing masks properly in the first place. Because certainly I still see people that are not wearing masks properly. If you're not, your second mask is probably not going to do the trick.

8. Is this new coronavirus variant more deadly than the original strain?

Kindrachuk: There was some recent data that came out of Public Health England.… There is data and modelling data to suggest that there's a higher risk of death associated with the variants. We have to keep in mind that it's modelling data and data that is based purely off of a very small portion of disease cases in the U.K. But it gives us a little bit of a glimmer of light into what this variant may be.

So I certainly think we're a little bit behind right now in understanding and certainly within the laboratory what that looks like. 

But if we have a virus that surely has become more transmissible, we know that if that virus and if that variant starts to move through our population, it's going to result in more cases. And we know that if there are more cases, that's going to ultimately result in more people going to hospital and likely more people succumbing to disease. So we have to keep that in mind that what we hear, the [words] "more transmissible," that should give us an indication that this is something we need to be very serious about.