KAWARTHA LAKES-Ontario’s Chief Medical Officer of Health says we should keep calm and carry on with what we’ve been doing when it comes to the new COVID-19 variant called Omicron.
Two Cases of the variant were detected in Ottawa and the province is investigating four other possible cases, two in Ottawa and two in Hamilton.
“We will keep calm and keep doing what we know works,” said Dr. Kieran Moore, Ontario’s Chief Medical Officer of Health during a morning press conference. “Vaccination in combination with public health measures and individual protective measures has been working so please keep up with this.”Â
Dr. Moore stressed handwashing, physical distancing, masks and limiting social gatherings. When asked about stricter measures for increasing vaccination levels he said the province is looking at making therapeutics such as monoclonal antibodies, more widely available.
The first two cases of the variant were in people who had recently been in Nigeria. They were first tested for the virus in Montreal when they arrived in Canada.
He says public health units are also contacting 375 people who have returned from countries deemed to be high risk for the variant and are offering them testing.
The province is doing genomic sequencing on 100% of the positive cases in Ontario through the Ontario COVID-19 Genome Sequencing Network according to Dr. Moore.
