‘Omicron is not taking a holiday,’ Ontario’s top doctor warns as number of COVID-19 cases surges toward new heights

Ontario is grappling with exponential growth in its COVID-19 case counts and is on track to see more cases per day than has ever been recorded since the onset of the pandemic, the province’s top doctor said Tuesday.

Thestar.com
Dec. 22, 2021
Raisa Patel

Ontario is facing exponential growth in the number of new COVID-19 cases, and is on track to see more per day than at any other point in the pandemic, the province’s top doctor said Tuesday.

“Hospitalizations have increased by nine per cent in the past week, and while the ICU occupancy remains stable, we anticipate that in the coming days and weeks we will start to see a greater impact of Omicron on hospitalizations and our intensive care units,” said Dr. Kieran Moore during his weekly media briefing.

“Early evidence indicates that Omicron is four to eight times more transmissible than the Delta variant and as of last week, Omicron has become the predominant strain in Ontario.”

No one who has been infected with the rapidly spreading coronavirus variant has been admitted to the intensive-care unit at an Ontario hospital thus far. The province is reported 3,453 new cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday, and on Monday administered more than 206,000 vaccine doses.

Moore’s update came the day after the province opened up eligibility for booster doses to anyone aged 18 and older, provided it’s been at least three months since their last shot.

“We’re pulling out all the stops to try to have as many immunizers available to Ontarians as possible,” Moore told reporters, when asked about those shut out from booking an appointment on Monday.

That includes calling on anyone with experience administering intramuscular injections to support the province’s vaccine clinics, including retired people, dentists and other health professionals.

Ontarians can also look forward to a shorter time frame to develop protection against COVID-19 after getting a booster dose than they did with their primary series.

“It’s within five to seven days, you don’t have to wait the 10 to 14 (days) like we stated in the primary series,” Moore said.

As for whether parents should brace for schools to move online in the new year, Moore said more children are getting vaccinated and pointed to evidence that the virus doesn’t have a significant impact on their health.

“We’re very committed to keeping our schools open,” he said. “I have consulted whether we should delay and at present, with the experts that I’ve consulted, they don’t see a reason to do that at present in Ontario.”

The province on Sunday slashed capacity for indoor public settings to 50 per cent and limited indoor informal gatherings to a maximum of 10 people in an effort to slow Omicron’s spread and protect hospitals from the worst of the surge.

Moore urged Ontarians to scale back and limit their holiday gatherings as the province also contends with a variant-fuelled increase in COVID-19 testing demands.

“You’ve been all asked to sacrifice so much over the last 20 months,” he acknowledged, “but Omicron is not taking a holiday.”

The chief medical officer added that Ontario is in a better position than it was at this time last year, given Canada’s vaccine rollout and emerging evidence that three doses are effective in preventing severe outcomes of the disease.

“We’ll get you the vaccine,” he said.

“It may not be at the exact time you’d like but we’re doing our best at a very difficult time.”