Ontario is investigating four additional COVID-positive people who met specific high-risk criteria for the Omicron coronavirus variant, and the province’s chief medical officer suggested limiting the investigation focus on returnees from southern Africa is not a wise idea.
Dr. Kieran Moore said beyond the two Ottawa residents confirmed to have the Omicron variant, there are four other individuals – two also in Ottawa and two others in Hamilton – whose positive COVID-19 samples are undergoing whole genomic sequencing.
Three hundred and seventy five other returnees from seven different southern African countries who arrived in Ontario over the past two weeks were offered asymptomatic testing and are undergoing mandatory home quarantine.
“If they’re positive, we have good local capacity to respond to them,” Moore told reporters on Monday.
He said the two Ottawa residents confirmed to have Omicron returned to Canada from Nigeria through Montreal’s Pierre Elliott Trudeau Airport and had their test samples sequenced by chance as part of a random genomic surveillance program.
Since Nov. 5, the province has run virtually all positive samples through whole genomic sequencing, a genetic mapping procedure conducted in a lab that can take up to four days to complete.
Given the fact that dozens of countries around the world have now detected at least one Omicron variant case, Moore said the current travel restrictions and testing guidance which focuses on southern Africa doesn’t make much sense.
“I think we’re learning from the epidemiology of this that this virus has been present on the globe for many, many weeks if not months,” he said.
“It may be more prudent to broaden the testing of all returning travellers.”
The focus on isolating returnees and banning flights from southern Africa has drawn condemnation from epidemiologists, as it appears to punish the South African government for being so forthright with their research and ignores the chasm of vaccine inequity still dividing the continent from its wealthier peers in Europe and North America.
The focus on southern Africa also ignores the fact that there have been Omicron cases found in Europe with either no history of travel to southern Africa or a travel history elsewhere, such as Egypt.
He said that they still do not have definitive data on whether Omicron is more virulent or capable of vaccine escape.
Asked if the province is preparing any new public health restrictions in response to Omicron, Moore said they was no reason to do so at present.
“I don’t foresee us having to take any (new) steps at present, we will have to understand if it is more virulent or increases incidence of hospitalization.”
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