According to Huron Perth’s Medical Officer of Health, it’s a matter of “when”, not “if” we will see the new Omicron COVID-19 variant in the region.
Dr. Miriam Klassen says so far, Omicron seems to out-compete Delta, but not enough information is known about it yet.
“I do think we still need to have a little more information about transmissibility because the setting in Ontario with our high vaccination rates mean that it’s not exactly comparable to countries like South Africa.”
She adds new guidance is coming soon, like cutting back on the amount of people gathering together and limiting contacts, and will be based on indicators such as the number of local cases and how many people are in area hospitals with the virus.
“We will be looking at the data and issuing our recommendations and/or instructions based on what we think is driving transmission, so all the measures that might decrease the number of contacts.”
The province has recorded at least 31 cases of the Omicron variant as of Wednesday morning.