Ontario detected the first two known cases of Omicron in Canada on Sunday, a worrisome new variant of COVID-19 that has led to a number of new border restrictions around the world.
Both cases of the variant were found in the Ottawa area in people who had recently been to Nigeria, Ontario Health Minister Christine Elliott said in a joint statement with the province’s chief public health official, Dr. Kieran Moore.
“Ontario is prepared and ready to respond to this new variant. Our hospital and intensive care capacity remains stable and the province continues to report one of the lowest active case rates in the country,” the couple said.
They said Ottawa Public Health is conducting “case and contact management” and that patients are self-isolating, while the province is testing all eligible COVID-19 positive samples to determine their variant.
The federal government recently banned visitors from seven southern African countries, including Namibia and Zimbabwe. Nigeria is not among them.
Elliott and Moore’s statement urges the federal government to take stronger action at the border, suggesting that everyone get tested for COVID-19 upon arrival, not just before leaving for Canada.
“The best defense against the Omicron variant is to stop it at our border,” they said.
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The federal health minister said Ottawa continues to assess the situation, but said Sunday’s news should not be cause for alarm.
“This development shows that our monitoring system is working,” Jean-Yves Duclos said in a statement.
“I know this new variant may sound concerning, but I want to remind Canadians that vaccination, in combination with public health and individual protection measures, is working to reduce the spread of COVID-19 and its variants in our communities.” .
Ontario detects the first two known cases of #Omicron COVID-19 #variant from Canada. # COVID-19
Alberta’s chief physician said public health officials in his province were contacting people who had traveled from “one of the countries of interest” in the past 14 days to tell them to isolate themselves.
“We are working with health officials across the country to closely monitor the Omicron situation,” Dr. Deena Hinshaw tweeted on Sunday. “There are currently no confirmed cases of this variant of COVID-19 in Alberta.”
Omicron was first detected in South Africa, where COVID-19 cases have increased exponentially in recent weeks.
The World Health Organization has said that “preliminary evidence suggests an increased risk of reinfection with this variant” compared to others, and scientists say it could also be more contagious.
Israel decided to bar entry to foreigners and Morocco said it would suspend all incoming flights for two weeks starting Monday. Other countries, including the US, New Zealand and Thailand, took approaches more like Canada’s, banning travel from just a handful of countries in southern Africa.
The WHO has advised against travel bans, suggesting they could be an overreaction, as not much is known about the variant yet.
Omicron has already been found in countries around the world, including the Netherlands and Australia, raising questions about the effectiveness of specific border closures at this time.
Dr. Zain Chagla, associate professor of medicine at McMaster University, said “blind closures” don’t make scientific sense, as the variant has probably already been around for weeks.
“It really doesn’t make sense for us to use rigid travel bans as a way to prevent cases, as opposed to mitigating the spread,” he said.
Instead, he said, it should serve as a reminder of the importance of vaccine equity.
African countries have received far fewer vaccines than richer nations like Canada. Less than a quarter of South Africa’s population has been fully vaccinated, and it is an outlier on the continent.
Less than 10 percent of Africans are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, creating an environment conducive to the spread and mutation of the virus.
“If we are going to repeat the same mistakes this time, and we continue to vaccinate our lower-risk populations and forget about our global obligations, I am pretty sure that we will see this scenario repeating itself over and over again,” Chagla said.
The discovery of the Omicron cases came as Ontario today reported 964 new COVID-19 cases and one more death from the virus.
The figure marks the province’s highest daily case count since May 30, the last date new infections passed the 1,000 mark.
This Canadian Press report was first published on November 28, 2021.
– with files from Sarah Smellie in St. John’s, Rob Drinkwater in Edmonton, and The Associated Press.
Reference-www.nationalobserver.com