One of the difficulties presented by the new Omicron variant of COVID-19 has to do with Public Health’s ability to adequately screen for it.

Chief Medical Officer of Health, Dr. Janice Fitzgerald, explains that the province can detect the variant through its whole genome sequencing lab, and screening tests for omicron are being developed.

The challenge with the screening tests, she says, is based on the makeup of the virus.

She says Omicron has a number of mutations that are similar to other variants, making it difficult to develop a specialized test for the virus.

Right now, she says they are testing all international cases with the Delta screening tool, and if the case is not Delta then they will do whole genome sequencing to determine if it is Omicron.