Toronto Public Health says more than half of the 70 confirmed COVID-19 cases linked to an outbreak at the Toronto South Detention Centre have screened positive for a variant of concern.
In an email to CP24, Dr. Vinita Dubey, the city’s associate medical officer of health, said that as of March 16, site-wide testing at the Etobicoke jail has led to 70 positive cases of the disease caused by the novel coronavirus.
“Of these, 36 Toronto cases have screened positive for a variant of concern,” Dubey’s statement read.
“There are also two other individuals who also screened positive for a variant of concern, who are not Toronto cases and are being managed by another heath unit.”
Public Health Ontario is undertaking whole genome sequencing of the cases to confirm the exact variant lineage.
The results, Dubey said, are not yet available.
“TPH provides case counts once they are investigated, reviewed and confirmed. All numbers are considered preliminary and will continue to change as new information is received and quality assurance work takes place,” the statement continued.
“The case counts provided includes all Toronto confirmed cases of COVID-19 linked to the outbreak, which can include both staff and inmates.”
Variant cases continue to rise in Ontario and on Tuesday, the province’s COVID-19 Science Table estimated that at least 53 per cent of all infections confirmed during the previous 24-hour period were variants of concern.
