Ottawa is experiencing the start of another pandemic wave that likely includes cases of the highly contagious XBB.1.5 subvariant, according to one of the city\u0027s leading wastewater researchers.
Researchers won’t know until later this week whether the subvariant that is driving a spike in cases in the United States is playing a significant role in the current Ottawa surge. But, whatever subvariants are behind it, the virus that causes COVID-19 is rising sharply in the city’s wastewater as cases, outbreaks and test positivity increase across the city.Sign up to receive daily headline news from Ottawa Citizen, a division of Postmedia Network Inc.
Meanwhile, China, which abruptly lifted its zero COVID policy late last year, is experiencing an explosion of COVID-19 cases, with tens of million of people being infected in a single day, according to reports. The WHO reported this week that the sub-variants BA.5.2 and BF.7, which have been circulating in Ottawa for months, appear to be dominant in China’s outbreak.
As of mid-December, XBB — including the subvariants XBB.1 and XBB.1.5 — represented around three per cent of all of the SARS-CoV-2 virus genome sequenced in Eastern Ontario, said Graber. This week, as cases of COVID-19 increase in Ottawa, researchers will get information about what has happened since then.
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