Two cases of the new Omicron COVID-19 variant were detected in Ontario on Sunday, the first to be revealed in Canada, while Quebec announced Monday that it had confirmed its first case.
The two Ontario cases were found in the Ottawa area and involved people who had recently travelled to Nigeria, the Ontario government said. The province said today the two infected people were recently in Nigeria and were tested for the virus in Montreal before travelling on to Ottawa.
In Quebec, 115 people who recently travelled to the province, principally from countries in southern Africa, have been asked to take a PCR test and to isolate.
Health Minister Christian Dubé said experts are working to sequence the tests and to determine whether the variant is more contagious or more vaccine-resistant than previous strains.
Public health director Horacio Arruda said Quebec's case also involves a person who recently travelled from Nigeria, but he did not say whether it was connected to the Ontario cases.
In an effort to stop the spread of the new variant, the federal government is not allowing foreign nationals to enter the country if they have been in any of seven African countries in the last 14 days: South Africa, Eswatini, Lesotho, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Namibia. Nigeria is not on the list.
On Friday, B.C.'s provincial health officer, Dr. Bonnie Henry, said there was no evidence that the variant had reached B.C..
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