B.C. health officials are notifying residents of newly-discovered variant of the COVID-19 virus.

In a joint news release, provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry and Health Minister Adrian Dix said the impact of the new variant of concern, dubbed Omicron, is not yet known, but they thought it wise to issue the notification out of an abundance of caution.

鈥淎t this time, there is no evidence that this variant has been introduced into British Columbia,鈥� the statement said. 鈥淭he BC Centre for Disease Control鈥檚 public health lab has sequenced over 90,000 virus isolates in B.C. and will continue to use whole genome sequencing to monitor for all variants circulating in B.C., including this new variant of concern Omicron.鈥�

The ministry will work with the Public Health Agency of Canada and Canada Border Services Agency to identify people who may have contracted the variant from abroad to set up testing, said the statement.

The province will continue to monitor developments around the world, it continued.

In a daily update, the ministry reported 341 new cases of COVID-19 Friday, including four epi-linked cases. Since January 2020, there have been 217,099 confirmed cases.

鈥淭here are 3,035 active cases of COVID-19 in the province, and 211,577 people who tested positive have recovered,鈥� said the ministry. 鈥淥f the active cases, 291 individuals are in hospital and 115 are in intensive care. The remaining people are recovering at home in self-isolation.鈥�

There are 100 new cases in the Fraser Health, 65 in Vancouver Coastal Health, 77 in Interior Health, 31 for Northern Health and 68 new cases in Island Health.

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