The Health Unit addressed some of the concerns relating to the delays in results coming back on COVID-19 cases which have been considered to be of the variant of concern that is believed to have originated out of South Africa.
On Tuesday the health unit noted that 42 individuals have tested positive for COVID-19 cases linked to the Lancelot Apartments outbreak that now includes two deaths.
"The Health Unit has yet to get a cause of death however the individual tested positive for COVID-19 and a preliminary positive for a COVID-19 variant of concern," stated Jim Chirico, the North Bay Parry Sound Health Unit's chief medical officer of health.
"As of Wednesday, 42 individuals have tested positive for COVID-19 this includes within the apartment visitors and other contacts that we have been able to link through our contact tracing."
See related: Health Unit reports second death at Lancelot Apartments
Chirico says two individuals have a preliminary COVID-19 VOC test which we are still awaiting results for but may not receive all the results for all samples."
He admits testing for the COVID-19 variant can be a complicated process.
"Individuals are tested at a COVID-19 Assessment Centre," noted Chirico.
"Their samples are then moved to a lab anywhere in the province. The samples are tested to determine if they are positive for COVID-19 or not. Once a test is positive for COVID-19 it goes for additional testing to determine if there is a gene mutation associated with the variants of concern. If this is determined we are notified by the lab and we refer to this as a preliminary positive VOC. This sample is then sent for additional testing to determine the exact strain originating from South Africa or the UK, for example. There are many steps in this process and with labs receiving so many samples it takes additional time.
"At this point, we have received confirmation that two VOC cases from the apartment outbreak originated from South Africa. Due to the volume of samples being sent to our provincial labs and lab capacity we received confirmation from the provincial lab that not all of the preliminary positive VOC results will be genotyped to determine if they originated from South Africa or UK or Brazil. If we receive additional results, we will share them publically."
