The province of Ontario has now identified four cases of the novel Omicron coronavirus strain. According to Ottawa Public Health, two more travellers tested positive for the variation on Monday evening.
“Ontario’s government reported yesterday that two people in Ottawa tested positive for the COVID 19 omicron variant after recent travel history to Nigeria. “We now know of two more returned visitors who have tested positive for the omicron strain,” the health unit added.
The province announced earlier Monday that it was looking into four more COVID-positive people meeting specific high-risk criteria for the Omicron coronavirus strain, and the province’s chief medical officer suggested that focusing the investigation solely on returnees from southern Africa would be a bad idea.
Dr. Kieran Moore added that, in addition to the two Ottawa residents who were verified to have the Omicron (B.1.1.529) mutation on Sunday, four other persons whose positive COVID-19 results were undergoing whole genomic sequencing — two in Ottawa and two in Hamilton.
While the two more tourists in Ottawa have now tested positive for the variation, health officials in Hamilton have yet to get findings for those instances. The two other travellers were not identified by Ottawa Public Health. All four verified cases are now able to isolate themselves.
Three hundred and seventy-five other returnees from seven different southern African nations who landed in Ontario in the last two weeks were given asymptomatic testing and are still asked for compulsory home quarantine.
Source: CTV News
