Ontario Health Minister Christine Elliott speaks to reporters at the Ontario Legislature on Dec. 7.Fred Lum/The Globe and Mail
A public health unit in eastern Ontario says it has detected the Omicron COVID-19 variant in a person who doesn’t have a travel history.
Kingston, Frontenac, Lennox & Addington Public Health says it is working to identify how the person was infected with the variant. It says the case confirms that the Omicron variant is present in the region.
The health unit’s top doctor is urging residents to limit or avoid social gatherings, screen daily for symptoms and and stay home if sick to help limit the spread of Omicron.
What Canada has to do at the border – and elsewhere – to beat Omicron
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Earlier Wednesday, the Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit announced that it was investigating a household cluster of seven COVID-19 cases that have a “strong probability” of being Omicron.
The cluster is linked to people who travelled to the region from Nigeria in November.
Meanwhile, Ontario is reporting 1,009 new COVID-19 cases and eight deaths from the virus Wednesday.
Health Minister Christine Elliott says 443 of the new cases are in people who aren’t fully vaccinated and 64 people have unknown vaccination status.
There are 155 patients in intensive care due to COVID-related critical illness, including 97 people on ventilators.
Elliott said 131 of the intensive care COVID-19 patents were not fully vaccinated or had an unknown vaccination status.
As of Tuesday there were two COVID-19 patients from Saskatchewan in Ontario hospitals, with one of them in intensive care.
Provincial data show that 85 per cent of residents aged five and older have at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose and 80 per cent have received both shots.
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