A new Covid variant has reached Ontario
It sounds alarming, but experts say there is no cause for greater concern
Public Health Ontario’s most recent surveillance report shows that a new Covid variant has been detected in the province. Twenty-one infections of the strain, called BA.3.2, were identified during the period of January 18 to February 14.
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The variant was first identified in South Africa in 2024, and is now present in at least 23 countries around the world.
Dr. Isaac Bogoch, an infectious disease specialist, told CP24 that while news of a new Covid variant is understandably alarming, it doesn’t need to cause concern.
“The symptom range is still going to be the same, and the prevention is still going to be the same,” he said. “So, for people’s day-to-day lives, in terms of, ‘what does this look like for me?' ‘What does this look like for the community?' Nothing. There’s going to be nothing new versus what we’ve seen over the last three years or so.”
Data from Public Health Ontario’s online Respiratory Virus Tool indicates that in general, Covid cases have now fallen since a spike that occurred from November to January.
Related: Toronto Public Health has confirmed two cases of a new mpox variant
Carly Lewis is a journalist whose work has appeared in the New York Times and the New York Times Magazine, Vanity Fair, Wired, Interview Magazine, Pitchfork, Elle, and Maclean’s, where she is a contributing editor. Her work has been recognized by the National Magazine Awards and the Digital Publishing Awards. She reports on city life, culture—including what people do online—politics, art and crime. She received the Dave Greber Freelance Writers Award for “The Murder of Ashley Wadsworth,” an investigative feature about a Canadian teenager who was killed by a man she met on social media, published by Maclean’s.
