Omicron: What we know so far
Plus: Bradford Bypass RFP, fringe party support is up, budget bill hearings, picks for vote tech committee, a fresh spending report, and Del Duca hits the links in Ajax
ABOVE THE FOLD
THE LATEST THREAT: OMICRON — Ontario has taken the title of the country’s first known cases of the Omicron Covid variant. Dr. KIERAN MOORE briefs reporters on the threat level at 9:30 a.m.
— What we know: A pair of cases in Ottawa were linked to recent travel from Nigeria and local public health is conducting case and contact management. Genomic monitoring and border surveillance detected both cases of the variant, which originated in South Africa and prompted a flurry of international travel bans.
— What we don’t know: Early data suggests the variant may be more transmissible, but there’s not enough evidence either way.
Per the World Health Organization, Omicron has 30-plus mutations of the spike protein that viruses use to get into human cells, some of which are concerning. That’s double that of the Delta variant — but more testing is needed to confirm whether Omicron is more infectious or vaccine-resistant.
— What governments are doing about it: The top doc…