Pat Stevens/
Canada has announced its first cases of the B.1.1.529 COVID-19 variant, also known as omicron, detected in two people from Ottawa who returned from a trip to Nigeria.
The two cases had tested positive for the new COVID-19 variant of concern that was first detected in southern Africa, Ontario health officials reported yesterday.
Ontario Health Minister Christine Elliott and Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Kieran Moore said in a joint statement that the patients are in isolation; adding that Ottawa Public Health is conducting case and contact management, according to a report by CP24.com.
“Ontario is prepared and ready to respond to this new variant.
“The Ontario COVID-19 Genomic Network is continuing to actively monitor for all potential variants circulating in the province; including the Omicron variant, and is conducting genomic sequencing on 100 per cent of eligible COVID-19 positive samples,’’ the statement reads.
Following the emergence of omicron, several countries, including Canada, announced travel restrictions for southern African countries. Nigeria is not on the list of countries affected by Canada’s travel ban.
Federal Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos said in a statement that he has spoken with his provincial counterpart about Canada’s first two confirmed cases of omicron.
“This development demonstrates that our monitoring system is working,” he said.
“As the monitoring and testing continues with provinces and territories; it is expected that other cases of this variant will be found in Canada.”
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