First case of new variant Omicron COVID-19 confirmed in Hamilton | The Canadian News

One of two Hamilton-area residents who traveled to Africa is the first in the city to test positive for the Omicron COVID-19 variant, according to public health.

The city agency confirmed test results from an Ontario lab on Saturday, just days after the province’s top doctor revealed an investigation.

Medical Director of Health Dr. Kieran Moore said the two people returned from Africa, tested positive for COVID, and sent samples to sequence the genome.

The results of the second case under investigation are still in the process of being sequenced and are expected in the coming days, according to city officials.

City health officials have been urging anyone who has traveled to Botswana, Egypt, Eswatini, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, South Africa and Zimbabwe within 14 days of arriving in Hamilton to isolate themselves. , even if you are vaccinated.

They also recommend that travelers get tested for COVID-19 at a local testing center, regardless of whether they have symptoms.

As of Friday, at least four Canadian provinces have reported cases of Omicron, with seven cases in Ontario, three in Alberta, one in BC and a single case in Quebec.

Despite the emergence of the new variant, Deputy Director of Public Health Dr. Howard Njoo said Friday that Delta remains Canada’s top public health concern as Omicron is not widespread.

The jury is still out on whether the new variant is more contagious, may cause more serious illness, and / or may evade the protection offered by existing COVID-19 vaccines, according to Canadian health officials.

“Delta is our variant of concern, and the vaccines we are currently administering are effective against serious diseases and effective against Delta,” Njoo said, speaking in French.

The World Health Organization (WHO) is expected to have more information on whether Omicron is more transmissible “in days,” according to officials.

Public health reported 36 new COVID-19 cases in Hamilton on Friday, which is above the average number of cases (24) seen in the past seven days.

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The city had an overall average case rate of 19 per day for all of November.

Active cases remained constant day after day, remaining at 280 as of November 3.

More than 78% of all active cases correspond to people under 50 years of age, while 45% are under 30 years of age.

The city’s percent positivity rate, which represents the number of tests that returned positive in labs, dropped slightly week-over-week to 2.2 percent from 2.4 percent. The number is still below the provincial average of 2.9 percent reported on Friday.

The city revealed three new outbreaks on Friday, with the largest involving four cases with a truck rental agency. There are 13 combined outbreaks in Hamilton involving a total of 37 cases.

Two school bulbs were closed on Thursday: at Rehoboth Christian School and at St. Gabriel Catholic Elementary School. The increase at St Gabriel was linked to 14 cases in total, one among staff and 13 among students.

In the past 14 days, both public boards together have reported 84 cases, with 59 among students. Twenty-one of the cases are related to ongoing outbreaks.

There are 13 reported outbreaks in the city involving 37 cases in total.

Hospitals in Hamilton reported a total of 15 COVID-19 patients as of Friday, one more than the 14 reported Thursday.

Both St. Joe’s and Hamilton Health Sciences average less than one new hospital admission per day.

Over the past seven days, Hamilton’s health partners have administered nearly 16,000 doses of vaccines, and on Friday it recorded the highest intake for the week – 2,857 injections.

With a COVID-19 vaccine available for children ages five to 11, the city saw a 67.9 percent increase in doses administered over seven days.

As of Wednesday, 83.5 percent of eligible Hamiltonians age 12 and older have been fully vaccinated, while 86.4 percent have received at least a single dose. The city is still behind the provincial average, which has 87.2 percent fully vaccinated, 90 percent have received at least one dose of vaccine.

Residents ages 70 to 84 have reached the Ministry of Health’s goal of 90% coverage for the first and second doses.

Hamiltonians ages 25-29 represent the lowest vaccination rates of those eligible in the community with just over 73.6 percent fully vaccinated.

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