WINNIPEG – A respected Manitoba microbiologist says the province taking 18 days to discover the presence of the UK variant is unacceptable.

Dr. Kelly MacDonald, an infectious disease expert at the University of Manitoba, says that’s too long a wait.

The province says it has stepped up screening to detect this and other COVID-19 variants.

These variants that have taken hold in the United Kingdom, South Africa and Brazil are more infectious and possibly deadlier.