There are two confirmed cases of the omicron variant of the coronavirus in Ottawa, the Ontario government announced Sunday.

"Today, the province of Ontario has confirmed two cases of the omicron variant of COVID-19 in Ottawa, both of which were reported in individuals with recent travel from Nigeria. Ottawa Public Health is conducting case and contact management and the patients are in isolation," the statement said.

These are the first cases of the omicron variant confirmed in Canada, coming just days after the country implemented new travel restrictions on foreign nationals who had visited several countries in southern Africa over the preceding two weeks.

Those travel restrictions went into effect on Friday. The omicron variant was first identified by South African researchers and has provoked global concern.

Little is known about the new variant, dubbed omicron by the World Health Organization and labelled as a variant of concern. It is being linked to a rapid rise of cases in a South African province.

It is not known at this time whether the variant is more transmissible, or more dangerous to the health of those who catch it, than other coronavirus variants.

"The best defence against the omicron variant is stopping it at our border. In addition to the measures recently announced, we continue to urge the federal government to take the necessary steps to mandate point-of-arrival testing for all travellers irrespective of where they're coming from to further protect against the spread of this new variant," said the statement from Ontario Health Minister Christine Elliott and Dr. Kieran Moore, the province's chief medical officer of health.

The provincial government urged residents to get vaccinated, including with booster doses, and to continue following public health guidance.

"Ontario is prepared and ready to respond to this new variant."

More confirmed cases likely: health minister

In a statement released Sunday, federal Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos said the confirmation of two omicron cases is a signal that the country's monitoring system is working but to expect more cases of the variant.

"As the monitoring and testing continues with provinces and territories, it is expected that other cases of this variant will be found in Canada," Duclos said.

SmartProf:
Nigeria is a warehouse of many problems. For the corrupt and ineffective leaders, this news is crap...our useless leaders are more interested in removing fuel subsidy, begging China for more loans and 2023 elections.

TMKsouth:
Malawi infects Israel - no South African connection.

Egypt infects Belgium - no South African connection.

Nigeria infects Canada - no South African connection.

This thing's been circulating in unvaccinated Africa because people here can't or don't want to vaccinate.

Anti-vaxers, come see your dirty work o. Soon Nigeria will be banned by half the planet as well.

TMKsouth:
Malawi infects Israel - no South African connection.

Egypt infects Belgium - no South African connection.

Nigeria infects Canada - no South African connection.

This thing's been circulating in unvaccinated Africa because people here can't or don't want to vaccinate.

Anti-vaxers, come see your dirty work o. Soon Nigeria will be banned by half the planet as well.

GamalNasser:


But every single case of Omicron has been found only in Vaxxed people ..No single case in an unvaccinated person... Seems its the vaccine thats spawning these mutations

SmartProf:
Nigeria is a warehouse of many problems. For the corrupt and ineffective leaders, this news is crap...our useless leaders are more interested in removing fuel subsidy, begging China for more loans and 2023 elections. Omicron Covid 19 variant doesn't concern our leaders, as long as it's not a virus that wipes stolen funds.

GamalNasser:


But every single case of Omicron has been found only in Vaxxed people ..No single case in an unvaccinated person ... Seems its the vaccine thats spawning these mutations

TMKsouth:
Malawi infects Israel - no South African connection.

Egypt infects Belgium - no South African connection.

Nigeria infects Canada - no South African connection.

This thing's been circulating in unvaccinated Africa because people here can't or don't want to vaccinate.

Anti-vaxers, come see your dirty work o. Soon Nigeria will be banned by half the planet as well.

ebufa:


They want to implicate all African nations, next step is to impose mandatory vaccines on all African nations failing which they impose permanent travel restrictions............question is what will be in the vaccines sent to Africa? Africa must be as gentle as doves and as wise as serpents!

ebufa:






They want to implicate all African nations, next step is to impose mandatory vaccines on all African nations failing which they impose permanent travel restrictions............question is what will be in the vaccines sent to Africa? Africa must be as gentle as doves and as wise as serpents!

TMKsouth:
Malawi infects Israel - no South African connection.

Egypt infects Belgium - no South African connection.

Nigeria infects Canada - no South African connection.

This thing's been circulating in unvaccinated Africa because people here can't or don't want to vaccinate.

Anti-vaxers, come see your dirty work o. Soon Nigeria will be banned by half the planet as well.

Golan007:


While the citizens are invetnting cold fusion, cybernetics and nuclear power.

TMKsouth:


Please provide proof it hasn't been found in a single unvaccinated person in Southern Africa and the other 10 countries it has emerged in.

The reason Omicron is able to infect everyone including the vaccinated and those who have already had covid is because it's highly mutated around the protein spike (twice as Delta) and hence enters the cells in a different way than the original covid strain. That's why current vaccines might have to be tweaked to learn to identify that highly mutated protein spike.

I'm not an expert but that's how I understand it.

TMKsouth:
Malawi infects Israel - no South African connection.

Egypt infects Belgium - no South African connection.

Nigeria infects Canada - no South African connection.

This thing's been circulating in unvaccinated parts of Africa because people here can't or don't want to vaccinate.

Anti-vaxers, come see your dirty work o. Soon Nigeria will be banned by half the planet as well.

BABANGBALI:
Why now? Now Canada will ban Nigeria from coming into their country



Person no go see people like bola146, mynd44, funjosh, funkebabee, vickyrotex, fatymore, ajepako, Olunmercy56 and lalasticlala for this kind place, na to sidon for their compound to lament na him dem sabi." Bullying/Insulting a nairalander. Violation of rule 2. Ban expires at January 11, 2023 at 12:08:18 PM.


No be madness be dat

dasparrow:

Why can't they just find a cure for this Covid? I lost a loved one to the vaccine. She developed blood clots which caused a heart attack. She died just 3 days after taking the Pfizer booster shot. How many vaccines are people supposed to keep taking? What of the side effects of all this spike proteins in one's system? I live in a country in North America where people with high blood pressure or diabetes are forbidden by the ministry of health from taking the Covid vaccine so the government is offering free PCR tests to the public. Everyone is not going to get vaccinated and that's that.

GamalNasser:


But every single case of Omicron has been found only in Vaxxed people ..No single case in an unvaccinated person... Seems its the vaccine thats spawning these mutations