By: Matthew Chiu
Toronto and York Region confirmed their first cases of the new omicron variant today. Ontario reported 1031 new COVID cases, the most cases in a day in over 6 months, along with 4 confirmed deaths, making it a total of 10,016 total COVID-related deaths in Ontario. Of the 1031 new cases, 504 were unvaccinated, 27 had taken one vaccine, 442 were fully vaccinated, and 58 were unknown.
Ontario currently sits at 7217 active cases, up from the previous day’s totals at 6932, and more than 1200 cases from last week. Ontario’s Ministry of Health reported 286 people in hospital, with 146 in intensive care and 92 needing the assistance of a ventilator.
York Region’s first omicron case was confirmed to be a child under the age of 12 in Vaughan. The child came back from South Africa on November 22, and close contacts to the child have been contacted and are currently isolating at home. Officials have asked anyone returning from South Africa, Eswatini, Lesotho, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Namibia, Egypt, Nigeria or Malawi anytime between the last month to get tested immediately.
Parents sending their children to school have been unhappy with how things have operated. Many have been questioning why they should be sending their children to school with no mandate that the teachers need to be vaccinated. One parent who wishes to remain anonymous says that he understands people have opinions, but doesn’t understand why teachers who are around kids all day aren’t vaccinated. As of now, around 86% of teachers in Ontario are fully vaccinated. Ontario public schools have already reported over 170 more cases, and the prospect of schools going back to online exclusively is becoming increasingly likely by the day.
According for Dr. Beate Sander, co-chair of Ontario’s modelling table, another lockdown is within realm of possibilities which would put restrictions that were previously lifted in place once again. “She is warning that failure to do so now could make another lockdown “unavoidable later in the fall.” With the cases continuing to rise and flu season approaching, a question many people are dreading is, will Ontario go into yet another lockdown? Officials continue to plead with the public to get vaccinated, especially with the new variant now in the picture.
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