b.c. is doing well when it comes to declining covid-19 numbers, but a reluctance to share data is hurting world-wide efforts to beat the pandemic, a member of an independent covid-19 modelling group said wednesday.
sarah otto , a professor at the university of b.c. who specializes in mathematical modelling, said as the province reopens, the spread of the delta variant of sars-cov-2 has to be watched closely.
since being identified in late 2020, the delta variant has spread to more than 80 countries. it is a mutation in the spike protein the virus uses to enter cells in a body.
the world health organization considers it 55 per cent more transmissible than the alpha variant , which was 50 per cent more transmissible than the original coronavirus that causes covid-19.
on wednesday, the b.c. covid-19 modelling group , an interdisciplinary group of academics, researchers and experts, released its sixth report on the status of covid-19 in b.c .
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the r eport said that the modelling group has repeatedly had trouble getting accurate and updated data on variants of concern from the b.c. centre for disease control . since may, for example, all cases have been genetically sequenced but not publicly available.
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she said the lack of data accessibility and sharing in b.c. has been an issue since at least the 2003 outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (sars) , which was caused by a coronavirus.
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