Canada's Top Doctor Has A Warning For Ontarians After 'Upsurge Of Omicron' In The Province
She singled out sports and workplace parties.
Canada's top doctor is advising Ontarians to take more precautionary measures as the Omicron variant experiences an "upsurge" in the province.
In a press conference on Monday, December 13, Dr. Theresa Tam answered questions about public health and safety, such as her thoughts on the Governor General recently cancelling a trip to Hamilton as COVID-19 concerns were on the rise.
"It’s such a rapidly involving situation, I would advocate for a more precautionary approach right now," she said. "I think the Governor General did show great leadership."
She noted that everyone should be more careful at the moment.
"What we’ve seen is the variant has a propensity to spread very rapidly causing super-spreading events in many settings including sports events, sports matches in different countries, workplace parties, schools … so I think there is a risk," she said about those kinds of gatherings.
"Ontario is experiencing an upsurge of Omicron variant, so I do think prudence is very much advised," Dr. Tam said.
Dr. Tam's words of caution came the same day the Region of Waterloo announced that nine sports teams in Ontario had been linked to a COVID-19 outbreak involving the Omicron variant, with more than 500 high-risk contacts.
"This winter is going to be a bumpy ride, and sure enough, we’ve now got one of those bumps, [...] and there will be other variants potentially," Dr. Tam said. "So we need to ride out these bumps knowing that we have vaccines, we have testing, we have public health measures, we have treatments, some new ones to come."
When looking at what the future holds, Dr. Tam said she was still remaining optimistic.
"All of this points still toward an optimistic outlook in the next year, but of course, I reserve the judgment, because we have to reassess the situation on an ongoing basis."
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