Durham Region Detects First Confirmed Case of Omicron Variant | The Canadian News

The Durham Region Health Department says they have confirmed a case of the Omicron variant from a close contact of a traveler returning from a southern African country.

“The Department of Health is also monitoring other COVID-19 cases under investigation for the Omicron variant based on travel history and working with the province to monitor the COVID-19 variants of interest, including Delta and Omicron.” the local public health unit said.

He also said that he would not reveal any more information about the confirmed case.

Earlier this week, another four cases of COVID-19 of the Omicron variant were detected in the Ottawa and Hamilton areas.

The variant of concern was recently declared the fifth variant of concern by the World Health Organization (WHO) since the pandemic began.

Health officials are still unclear if Omicron is more communicable, but the WHO said it would have more data “in a few days.”

The federal government has recently imposed travel bans on several affected countries in southern Africa, including Botswana, Egypt, Eswatini, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, South Africa and Zimbabwe. Travelers from these areas cannot enter Canada.

“While this new variant is not a cause for alarm, it is important to remain vigilant and continue to follow public health measures that have been shown to be effective throughout the pandemic,” said Dr. Robert Kyle, regional health medical officer for the region. Durham.

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