Covid Canada: Whistler ski resort shut down over 877 cases of Brazil variant in British Columbia - Daily Mail

The world famous Canadian ski resort Whistler has been forced to shut down after officials confirmed almost 900 cases of the highly contagious Brazil COVID-19 P.1.

variant in British Columbia.

It's is a mystery to health officials how the variant arrived to the resort. .

The Provincial Health Officer for the area said that resort was closed in an effort to curb the spread of the more deadly and infectious variant. .

The P.1 variant has led to increasing infections in young people and it appears to be more contagious and more capable of reinfecting people than the other variants, experts say.   .

Rising: This graphic reveals the rising number of COVID cases in British Columbia in Canada - since March almost 900 cases of the more infectious and deadly Brazilian P.1 variant have been reported in the province .

British Columbia in total has confirmed 877 cases of the P.1 variant, with nearly a quarter of those cases being linked to Whistler.

The Whistler Blackcomb ski resort (file image) was forced to shut down after officials confirmed more than 800 cases of the highly contagious Brazil COVID-19 variant in British Columbia.

Canadian health officials are now concerned about the spread of the variant to British Columbia's largest city Vancouver which is around 60 Miles from Whistler .

The growing number of cases also temporarily benched the city's hockey team, the Vancouver Canucks.

The Health Ministry has cut its outlook for vaccine supplies in April three times already, to half their initial level, and the country's two biggest laboratories are facing supply constraints.

The delays also mean tens of thousands more deaths as the particularly contagious P.1 variant of COVID-19 sweeps Brazil.

The death toll is forecast to continue rising in the next two weeks to an average of nearly 3,500 per day before receding, according to the University of Washington's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation.

The variant, known as P.1, first caught international attention when four travelers arriving in Tokyo from Manaus, Brazil, tested positive for COVID-19 on January 2.

In early April, the CDC revealed the variant is the second-most prevalent in the U.S., accounting for about one percent of cases.

HOW WELL DO COVID-19 VACCINES PROTECT AGAINST THE VARIANT.

With extensive experience in successful, massive vaccination programs, Brazil should have known better, said Claudio Maierovitch, former head of Brazil's health regulator. .

'The big problem is that Brazil did not look for alternatives when it had the chance,' he said.

Stalled supplies of the AstraZeneca vaccine in January amid pressure for Brazil to begin its vaccination campaign prompted the Health Ministry to acquire tens of millions of shots from Sao Paulo state's Butantan Institute, which is mixing an active ingredient from China with a sterile solution and bottling it.

Cemetery workers wearing protective gear lower the coffin of a person who died from complications related to COVID-19 into a gravesite at the Vila Formosa cemetery in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Hospital director Altair Soares Neto said health professionals scarcely find time to sleep

But, if cases keep growing, sometime we will fight chaos,' he said

'If we just wait for the vaccine to reach all risk groups, many people will die,' said the health association's president, Gulnar Azevedo e Silva

While visiting Fiocruz on Friday, health minister Marcelo Queiroga told reporters there are other countries that are also experiencing problems with their supply of active ingredients, and that vaccines won't remedy Brazil's high level of COVID-19 deaths in the short-term

COVID-19 variant, with Florida accounting for the highest number of cases

COVID-19 variant, with Florida accounting for the highest number of cases. 

COVID-19 cases continue to rise across the US, fueling fears of a fourth wave as officials urge Americans to keep following public health measures

In the last week alone, the average number of cases has risen by almost 11 per cent and totals are increasing in 22 states, according to a DailyMail.com analysis of data from Johns Hopkins University

Although the figure is far below January's peak of about 247,000 average new cases, it is in line with the late July surge, when daily cases were averaging about 68,000

In the last week, the average number of cases has risen by nearly 11 per cent and 22 states are reporting rising case numbers, according to an analysis of data from Johns Hopkins University

Experts currently have their focus on the Midwest, which has seen an exponential rise in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations

The average number of cases in Michigan has risen from about 2,000 per day to more than 6,000 per day, and hospitalizations have surged 400%

In Minnesota, the number of coronavirus infections has risen from an average of 1,569 per day to 2,348 per day, a 49% increase over two weeks

 In Illinois, coronavirus cases have surged by 48% in the last 14 days from 2,412 per day to 3,578 per day

'We need to be careful about that six month number,' said Fauci, adding that this time period was the farthest out that scientists were able to measure

He said that researchers will be continuing to study people in the months to come, measuring their antibody levels and studying any fully vaccinated person who contracted COVID-19

Experts currently have their focus on the Midwest, which has seen an exponential rise in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations

In Minnesota, the number of infections has risen from an average of 1,569 per day to 2,348 per day, a 49 per cent increase over two weeks, data from Johns Hopkins shows

In nearby Illinois, coronavirus cases have similarly surged, by 48 per cent in the last 14 days from 2,412 per day to 3,578 per day

The rise appears to be due to the coronavirus variant first identified in the UK, known as B.1.1.7, which accounts for about 70 per cent of new cases in the state