CP News-Alert: South African variant of COVID-19 found in Alberta

By The Canadian Press on January 8, 2021.

A health-care worker riding an escalator watches Ontario Premier Doug Ford speak to the media at a UHN COVID-19 vaccine clinic in Toronto on Thursday, Jan. 7, 2021. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette

A new variant of COVID-19 that first surfaced in South Africa has been found in Alberta.

The province’s chief medical health officer made the announcement in a tweet.

While no one from the Public Health Agency of Canada was immediately available to comment, the case could be a first in Canada.

Officials had said as late as Tuesday that the new variant had yet to be detected in the country.

More coming …