Officials in Simcoe County have confirmed three additional cases of the UK B.1.1.7 coronavirus variant, with more than 100 other suspected cases, as a tragic outbreak at a Barrie long-term care home where it was first detected continues to claim lives.

Simcoe-Muskoka District Health Unit Associate Medical Officer of Health Dr. Colin Lee said that three more variant cases were confirmed, bringing the total in the region to 10.

The variant was originally suspected at Roberta Place long-term care home in early January, after a worker who had close contact with someone who travelled abroad became sick.

More than 50 residentsthen became sick with COVID-19 in two days. All but one of the 129 residents were eventually infected, and 50 residents and one essential caregiver have now died.

The cluster associated with Roberta Place now includes 227 residents, staff members and essential caregivers.

“We are working very hard in our case and contact management to get to any case that would seem to be variant-related,” Lee said.

Initial PCR nasal swab screening detected infected people connected to two other congregate care facilities – Waypoint Centre for Mental Health Care and five residents and two staff members at Bradford Valley long-term care home in Bradford-West Gwillimbury.

Between the three facilities, there are 105 more people beyond the confirmed 10 who are highly probable cases.

“At this time out of all of them, we only have two where we cannot account for connection to Roberta Place,” he said.

The two are the index cases connected to the Waypoint and Bradford Valley outbreaks.

Lee said the lack of further community acquired cases of the variant gives him hope they can curb or even stop its spread.

“That’s a good sign – we do have a fighting chance to slow this down – we may be able to contain it even further.”

Ontario’s confirmed B.1.1.7 coronavirus variant count rises to at least 55

Elsewhere in Ontario, Waterloo officials confirmed one case of the B.1.1.7 variant in a woman who has since recovered fully from her illness.

The disclosure brings the confirmed total of B.1.1.7 variant cases to 55, with at least 105 highly probable cases awaiting genomic sequencing confirmation.

The B.1.1.7 strain of coronavirus is approximately 50 per cent more transmissible than “wild” strains of the virus currently circulating in Ontario.

Yesterday, a leading epidemiologist advising the Ontario government said the B.1.1.7 coronavirus variant would become the dominant strain in the province by some point in March.