Public Health Investigates Possible New Cases of Omicron COVID-19 Variants in Hamilton | The Canadian News

Local and provincial public health agencies are investigating two suspected cases in the Hamilton area of ​​the new Omicron COVID-19 variant, according to Ontario’s chief physician.

At a news conference Monday morning, Medical Director of Health Dr. Kieran Moore revealed an investigation into four possible incidents, including two in Ottawa.

The two Hamilton residents under the probe recently returned from South Africa, tested positive for COVID-19 and are awaiting the results of genome sequencing related to the Omicron variant.

“Hamilton Public Health Services is conducting case and contact management and the two individuals and their case contacts are self-isolating,” the city said in a statement Monday afternoon.

City health officials urge anyone who has traveled to Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, South Africa and Zimbabwe within 14 days of arriving in Hamilton to self-isolate, even if vaccinated.

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

The two Ottawa cases were linked to people who had recently been to Nigeria and were first tested for the virus in Montreal when they arrived in Canada.

“Your local public health agencies have been … briefed by the Public Health Agency of Canada … and are doing active case and contact management,” Moore said.

He went on to say that regional public health units were reaching 375 people who returned from countries the federal government considers high risk for the new variant and are offering testing.

With international flights returning to Hamilton this week, after Transport Canada lifted the suspension of passenger travel from John C. Munro Airport, Moore admitted the situation is currently “fluid” and said public health would communicate with the federal government for a test strategy. .

“We certainly were in contact with them all weekend to talk about a test strategy for all travelers returning to Canada,” Moore said.

“We will further review the short-term test strategy, we will travel for 72 hours or less.”

The province is expected to offer testing to all returning travelers, not just those from the seven designated countries in southern Africa.

Moore told Ontarians to “stay calm,” and said he doesn’t see a change in any restrictions at this time.

He said that if Omicron is “less lethal,” then it will have less of an impact on the province’s health system.

“I don’t have a complete crystal ball, but we will have greater clarity in the coming weeks on how, as a province, we would have to respond to this new threat,” Moore said.

The province is likely to have an announcement later this week regarding vaccines and expanding the availability of the third dose.

He said that an “accelerated third dose strategy” would be part of the new measures that the province could introduce as a way to combat the new variant.

Dr. Colin Furness, an epidemiologist and assistant professor at the University of Toronto, says the concern about the new version of the COVID-19 virus is that it is “successfully” competing with current variants through a spike protein mutation.

Trend stories

• 

  Here’s why the WHO omitted 2 Greek letters to name the new ‘Omicron’ variant

• 

  Bryan Adams, Fully Vaccinated, Tests Positive for COVID-19 for the Second Time

“The problem with mutations in the spike is that the vaccine teaches our immune system to recognize that spike and too many mutations make it more difficult to do so,” Furness told CHML 900. Good morning hamilton.

“You may recall that the Pfizer vaccine was originally 95 percent effective against COVID, and when we got to Delta, it was down to 88 percent. Then it could go down a bit more. “

The researcher says that the next steps for health communities around the world will be to complete laboratory studies that test how effective current vaccines are against Omicron and measure how much it is spreading in the community.

“With the variants we’ve seen so far, we know what the pattern looks like. They start small and all of a sudden they’re dominant, ”said Furness.

“So we will have to wait and see if this is also the case, and then watch for the symptoms,”

Hamilton Public Health reported 57 new COVID-19 cases over the weekend and a drop in active cases since Friday.

The city’s seven-day average case rate has declined slightly in recent days, registering at 9 p.m. on Monday compared to Friday’s average of 10 a day.

So far, throughout November, the city has an average rate of 20 cases per day, slightly lower than the 22 cases per day reported in October.

Active cases were down to 158 as of Nov. 29, 11 down from 169 reported on Friday.

More than 72% of all active cases correspond to people under 50 years of age, while 39% are under 30 years of age.

The city’s percent positivity rate, which represents the number of tests that return positive in labs, stands at 2.4 percent, lower than the provincial average of 3.5 percent reported Monday.

Since the pandemic began in March 2020, Hamilton has reported 25,766 COVID cases.

There are eight ongoing outbreaks reported linked to a total of 39 cases across the city as of November 29. The largest is at St. Gabriel Catholic Elementary School, which has 14 cases in total, one among staff and 13 among students.

In total, there are six ongoing school outbreaks connected to a total of 25 cases.

In the past 14 days, both public boards together have reported 66 cases, with 50 among students.

Hospitals in Hamilton reported a total of 14 COVID-19 patients as of Thursday, nine at Hamilton Health Sciences and five at St. Joe’s.

Over the weekend, Hamilton’s health partners administered more than 6,130 doses of vaccines, and on Friday it recorded the highest intake for the week – 2,813 injections.

With a COVID-19 vaccine available for children ages 5 to 11, the city saw a 56.7 percent increase in doses administered week over week.

Over the past seven days, the city fired 12,500 shots, about 4,500 more than from November 15 to November 21.

November’s average number of shots per day also received a boost, going from 1,057 on Friday to 1,239 on Sunday.

That’s more than the daily average recorded for October: 1,068 per day.

As of Sunday, 83.3 percent of eligible Hamiltonians age 12 and older have been fully vaccinated, while 86.7 percent have received at least a single dose. The city still lags behind the provincial average, which has 86.3 percent fully vaccinated and 89.7 percent with at least one dose of vaccine.

Residents ages 70 to 84 have reached the Ministry of Health’s goal of 90% coverage of the first and second doses. Meanwhile, Hamiltonians ages 25-29 account for the lowest vaccination rates of those eligible in the community with just over 73 percent fully vaccinated.

Hamilton trails 31 other public health units in the percentage of two-dose vaccines in Ontario.

See link »