Ontario needs new pandemic response strategy as Omicron makes inroads: experts
CTV
With the Omicron variant poised to become Ontario's dominant COVID-19 strain, experts want the province to explain how it plans to shift its pandemic response if many people are infected much more quickly than in previous waves.
"We obviously have dealt with this for two years, but this is very different," said Dr. Zain Chagla, an infectious diseases specialist at McMaster University.
"We're going to see something I don't think we've seen before."
Ontario announced two weeks ago that it had detected Canada's first two Omicron cases. Since then, the variant has come to represent about 11 per cent of infections, according to the province's expert pandemic advisory panel, and has begun spreading in local communities.
The province's top doctor has said he expects Omicron will become dominant within weeks. The development comes amid weeks of a steadily rising disease curve, with 1,476 cases reported on Sunday and a seven-day average of 1,236 daily infections, up from 926 a week ago.
