Omicron variant cases decline in Kingston, according to medical officer – Kingston | The Canadian News

It was during a media briefing in mid-December that dr. Piotr Oglaza, KFL & A’s medical officer of health, sounded the alarm bells about the rapid spread of the Omicron COVID-19 variant.

“Unfortunately, if we look at how we compare to the rest of the country, rest of the province, we are the highest in the country and the highest case rate ever reported by any public health unit,” Oglaza said at the time.

Kingston was one of the first cities in Ontario to see Omicron become the dominant variant of COVID-19 and now the region appears to be one of the first to see new cases of coronavirus begin to slow down.

“Our percentage of positivity has decreased significantly from earlier this year and late 2021 and is now stabilizing at around eight percent,” Oglaza said during a media briefing this week.

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Dr. Gerald Evans, chair of the Department of Infectious Diseases at Queen’s University, says the data he sees suggest that the city and surrounding areas are returning pre-Omicron COVID-19 levels.

“We see wastewater detection bringing us back to baselines where we were in October,” Evans said. “We are seeing a reduction in the number of outbreaks and outbreaks are driven by high community prevalence.”

This is welcome news for Luke Chambers, a co-owner of Hair of the Dog Barber and Pub.

Provincial restrictions have closed the bar section of the business and significantly reduced the services it provides to the hairdresser.

“A good percentage of our business was hair and beard clippings,” Chambers said. “When it comes to shaving, beards, it was a good part, a good 60 percent of the day would include that extra service. ”

With the prime minister and health minister announcing a staggering approach to easing restrictions at the end of January, Chambers is looking forward to an increase in business.

“It’s only going to enable us to go back to half business, because of course 50 percent occupancy is still there, but it’s a step in the right direction,” Chambers said. “It makes me confident that March might not be just a pipe dream.”

As part of the spread approach, restrictions will be reduced on 31 January, with further restrictions lifted on 21 February and again on 14 March as long as COVID-19 cases do not start to increase.

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