Highly transmissible COVID-19 variant detected in Nunavut
COVID-19 XBB.1.5 variant first detected in United States last fall
The XBB.1.5 COVID-19 variant has been detected in Nunavut. The territorial government’s Health Department advises the normal precautions, including staying home when sick and getting vaccinated. (Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay)
The COVID-19 XBB.1.5 variant — described as highly transmissible and likely to overtake previous strains of the virus — has been detected in Nunavut.
The territorial Department of Health made the announcement Tuesday in a news release.
“COVID-19 remains a threat to our health and flu season is not over,” states the release.
“The best way to protect yourself, your family and your community is to get vaccinated.”
Nunavummiut aged six months and older are eligible to receive flu and COVID-19 vaccinations.
The GN advised the public to follow regular precautions, which include staying home when sick, frequent hand washing, coughing and sneezing into your sleeves, avoiding touching faces, keeping distance when out and about, and not smoking indoors.
Masks are still mandatory in health-care settings.
According to the Public Health Agency of Canada, the XBB.1.5 variant emerged in the United States around October 2022.
would be cool if the gn health would provide updates, you know, take some responsibility for making people aware, then they choose whether or not to mask up.
Um, is that not just what they did as reported by this article?
on the gn health site, they’d report how many cases and where, they ain’t doin’ that no more.
Thank God they’re not doing that anymore.
I just heard of a parent deciding to keep her kids home from school because of this GN news release. Constant fear mongering does nothing but harm society.
LOCKDOWN
Lockdown does nothing. It’s another way for the Government to control the people. Covid, just like any other cold, will be around for years to come. It’s something we will (and have) learnt to live with.
Dare I say, airlines… they’ve done their part – reduced the quantity of flights and fixed the prices to a point where no one will travel, unless they’re out for medical which seems to occur at a tremendous rate. More intoxication hotels in Ottawa? Was interesting hearing people complain about the quality of food and lack of country food options… liquid diet seemed rather satisfactory though.
Why is anyone still talking about this virus? It’s been proven to be quite minor overall. People at risk of serious sickness from viruses are responsible for taking care of themselves.
Eat well, exercise, and stay healthy. Then you’re protecting yourself.
This just seems like a pre-cursor to justify bringing back restrictions.
if by “minor” you mean the 7 million people worldwide who have died from Covid 19 …. then I would like to see you definition of minor. In terms of your advice you missed the most imnportant one, STAY UP TO DATE WITH YOUR VACCINES
Northern Guy, dude, fatality rate is still 1% for covid. There are a lot more deadlier everyday things in the world to get freaked out about. Chill!
But they are not transmissible by air. That’s the big difference.
Tuttu I defy you to find anything else that has killed 7 million people over the last three years … go ahead I’ll wait.
Northern Guy. They can’t answer your question
Nunatsiaq, it really is imperative that before you post these misinformed comments/posts, you check the veracity of the same.
Some of your readers are going to believe these poor uneducated people.
Gross fatalities is not a good way to look at this kind of thing. Years of Life Lost (YLL) makes a lot more sense. In terms of YLL things like malaria and diarrhea will have dwarfed covid over the course of the pandemic since they kill young people in such numbers while covid is only really a serious disease for the very elderly.
Stupidity.. stupidity kills more people every year than anything else.
1% Infection Fatality Rate across the whole population in 2023 is way, way too high.
EVERY day, 175,000 die; many from old age. Those younger pass mainly due to accidents, violence, poisoning, cancer, bacterial disease; even hunger.
A significant portion of those who die of old age are going to die from a respiratory virus – if not covid (which truly was bad for this demographic pre-vaccine) then the flu or some other bug.