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    • COVID variants

    This colourized image, taken with a scanning electron microscope, shows a dying cell in a COVID-infected patient; the SARS-CoV-2 virus particles are in orange (Courtesy of NIAID)

    Inside the global race against COVID-19 mutations

    Variants of SARS-CoV-2 arise through errors in the virus’s replication process. But some mistakes give the virus a deadly advantage.

    Workers uncrate hospital beds at a field hospital under construction at Sunnybrook Hospital, in Toronto, Sunday, March 14, 2021. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Cole Burston

    ‘Younger and sicker’: What Canada’s variant-driven third wave looks like

    ‘These are preventable and avoidable deaths and illnesses,’ says Ashleigh Tuite, lead author on a new report about the variants of concern

    A person wears a mask to protect them from the COVID-19 virus while walking by an open store in Kingston, Ontario, on Wednesday Feb. 10, 2021. Kingston, Frontenac and Lennox & Addington (KFL&A) Public Health unit has moved into the green zone. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Lars Hagberg

    What is Canada doing to hold the COVID variants at bay?

    Case counts are falling, and provinces have begun opening up. But experts warn that more contagious strains like B.1.1.7 could soon dominate and lead to another huge spike.