The COVID-19 variant of concern first identified in India was reported in Waterloo Region for the first time by Waterloo Public Health on Wednesday.
The agency says four people have tested positive for the B.1.617 variant.
The variant is known as a “double mutant” variant due to a pair of mutations that the Indian Ministry of Health and Family Welfare says may confer “immune escape and increased infectivity.”
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Scientists are still reportedly working to see how effective vaccines are against the virus.
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There are three other variants of concern that have been found in Waterloo Region, with B.1.1.7, first identified in the U.K., becoming the dominant strain in the area.
So far, 3,084 cases have been confirmed to have come from variants of concern with 2,729 of those being linked to the B.1.1.7 variant.
–With files from Global News’ Twinkle Gosh and Sean Boynton
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