‘Rise of the BA.2 variant is worrisome’: Quebec urges caution as it warns of possible 6th COVID wave | Globalnews.ca

Quebec is urging people to be prudent amid rising COVID-19 cases as the province says it is possibly gearing up for a sixth wave of the pandemic driven by the even more transmissible BA.2 Omicron subvariant.

Interim public health director Dr. Luc Boileau held a rare Sunday press conference and said several indicators of another wave are on the rise, but that “it is still too soon to say that a sixth wave is here.”

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What we know so far about Omicron’s BA.2 subvariant

Boileau said the province has no plan on announcing any restrictions or closures, but added that it’s important that people act responsibly by testing and isolating.

He reminded Quebecers that while the isolation guideline for vaccinated individuals remains five days as of the onset of symptoms and then masking for another five days, people can still be contagious for up to ten days.

READ MORE: BA.2 33% more infectious than ‘original’ Omicron COVID strain, study finds

Those who are more vulnerable and at risk of developing infection-related complications due to age or because they’re immunosuppressed should be all that more cautious, the public health director said.

Health authorities say they expected cases to rise as public health restrictions lifted in the province in recent weeks, but the presence of the even more contagious BA.2 subvariant is driving a surge in cases and currently accounts for two-thirds of positive cases in Quebec.

READ MORE: Canada has detected BA.2 cases. What we know about this Omicron subvariant

In addition to an uptick in infections, Boileau says hospitalizations are on the rise outside the greater Montreal area and about 8,600 health network workers are currently off the job due to the virus.

The latest daily provincial data released Friday reported 2,203 PCR tests came back positive in the previous 24 hours — an underrepresentation of the situation as access to PCR testing remains limited to high priority groups.

READ MORE: Quebec to offer 4th dose of COVID-19 vaccine to at-risk groups as cases, hospitalizations rise

Non-priority groups should be testing with at-home antigen tests that are available at local pharmacies.

Earlier this week, health authorities in the province approved a fourth COVID-19 vaccine dose for at-risk groups.

Early data on the BA.2 subvariant of the original BA.1 Omicron variant shows that it isn’t more dangerous, but is more transmissible than the BA.1 Omicron — which had already become the most contagious COVID variant since the start of the pandemic.

READ MORE: BA.2 subvariant harder to identify than original Omicron strain, WHO says

The BA.2 sub-lineage of Omicron was first detected in November last year. Virologists say BA.2 will likely push out BA.1 as the dominant strain, just as Omicron overtook Delta.

Research so far suggests that the severity of the BA.2 disease is similar to BA.1’s.

–with files from the Canadian Press and Reuters

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