A mutant form for the COVID-19 virus – that has caused air travel to be locked don from Great Britain – has been found in Canada..A couple in Durham, Ont., east of Toronto, have tested positive for the virus – and they have had no travel history or had contact with high risk people..Dr. Barbara Yaffe, Ontario’s associate chief medical officer of health, said in a Saturday news release both people have been told and are in self-isolation..“This further reinforces the need for Ontarians to stay home as much as possible and continue to follow all public health advice, including the provincewide shutdown measures beginning today,” Yaffe said..“Durham Region Health Department has conducted case and contact investigation and Ontario is working in collaboration with our federal counterparts at the Public Health Agency of Canada.”.After a number of days of reporting more than 2,000 new COVID-19 cases a day, much of Ontario was placed into a lockdown on Boxing Day.. Mossleigh pub briefly opens before authorities move in .Canada is the latest country in the world to have cases of the mutant virus, joining Japan, Ireland, the Netherlands and other countries..Sweden and Spain record their first cases on Saturday..The mutant was first spotted in Great Britain and medical officials say it spreads quicker and people catch it easier than the regular COVID-19..The highly infectious mutant strain could be more likely to affect children, scientists have warned..Modellers at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine found the new virus strain is 56 per cent per cent more infectious, reported the Daily Mail..More worrying, two cases of a second, potentially even faster spreading variant from South Africa were announced this week..Dave Naylor is the News Editor of the Western Standard.dnaylor@westernstandardonline.com.Twitter.com/nobby7694
