MONTREAL -- Montreal has recorded a fourth variant of COVID-19 variant — B.1.525 — which was first identified in Nigeria.
According to the Institut national de santé publique du Québec, there are two known cases of the variant in the City of Montreal.
The public health body says this new variant joins three others in Quebec that are considered to be under “enhanced surveillance.” It was first detected in Canada in mid-February in British Columbia in someone who had travelled to the west African country.
There are a total of 704 known cases of variants of the novel coronavirus in Quebec, the majority of which (594) were first identified in the U.K. Meanwhile, the province is reporting 3,664 presumptive variant cases.
Data shows confirmed variant cases have been on the rise in Quebec since late February.
