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More contagious COVID-19 variant could become dominant strain in Montreal by March: INSPQ
coronavirus could be the dominant strain circulating in Montreal by March or April — but the spread of variants depends on how strictly people abide by public health measures and on how many cases are imported, according to Quebec’s public health institute.The latest COVID-19 modelling was issued by the Institut de Santé Publique du Québec (INSPQ) on Wednesday, one day after the province loosened some restrictions ahead of the upcoming school break.The modelling is based on a variant that is between 1.2 and 1.8 times more contagious than the current strain, which roughly corresponded to the B.1.1.7 variant which was first detected in the United Kingdom.“More contacts can give oxygen to this variant,” said Marc Brisson of Université Laval