Toronto Public Health confirms first three cases of Omicron variant in city
Toronto Public Health confirms first three cases of Omicron variant in city
TORONTO — When the first three cases of the novel coronavirus were identified in Toronto — two in the city and one in a Toronto woman who travelled overseas in late January — TPH was the only public health agency left in the city with the experience and capacity to conduct a comprehensive risk-assessment.
That assessment led to the creation of a team of trained epidemiologists and public health virologists. They’ve been working tirelessly alongside Toronto Public Health to develop the province’s first case-by-case strategy for tracing and managing cases and identifying contacts of those with the illness.
All three cases of COVID-19 are linked to travel to China where the virus originated from.
“This is not a flu case,” said TPH’s acting chief officer of communicable disease epidemiology, Dr. J. Michael Regan. “This is not an isolated case. This is a cluster of community transmission. Toronto Public Health takes the public health measures of protecting the community in all its diversity, including those that impact people’s physical health.”
In a media conference Tuesday morning, Regan said there was no evidence to suggest that any of the three who tested positive for COVID-19 were linked to the community through any travel history. Two were hospital employees who had been quarantined at the hospital in question, and the third had been to China.
No other cases have been reported in Toronto or Canada.
The first cases have been classified as COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus.
The second case reported Tuesday, a Toronto woman, travelled to Wuhan, China, on Jan. 23. She was in close contact with a person with confirmed COVID-19 in the city on Feb. 1 and was found to have the virus on Feb. 11.
The third, a Toronto woman, had been in contact with a person with confirmed COVID-19 in the city on Feb. 11, but the virus was identified within 24 hours. She was quarantined and isolated at the health unit in early March.
The hospital worker and the woman who had been to China now both reside in
