Canada said on Sunday it had detected its first cases of the new strain of coronavirus, omicron, in two travelers who were recently in Nigeria. The two patients are in isolation in Ottawa while public health officials monitor their contacts. The information was released by the Ontario provincial government in a press release.
“As testing and surveillance continue,” he added, “more cases of this variant are expected to be found in Canada,” Health Minister Jean-Yves said. Duclos in a press release.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has described omicron as a “variant of concern” and countries around the world are restricting travel from southern Africa, where the new strain was first identified, and take new precautions. WHO says it could take several weeks to find out if there are significant changes in the transmissibility and severity of Covid-19 cases with the new variant.
Canada on Friday announced the closure of its borders to travelers from southern Africa. People from South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Lesotho, Eswatini (or Swaziland) and Mozambique have been banned from entering the country.
On Wednesday, the Canadian government began vaccinating against Covid-19 for children aged 5 to 11. Canada is one of the countries with the highest covid-19 vaccination rates in the world, with more than 85% of people over 12 years of age vaccinated with at least two doses.
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