Two more possible Omicron variant cases in Ottawa under investigation

Public health officials are investigating two more possible cases of the Omicron COVID-19 variant in Ottawa, a day after the first two cases were confirmed.

Ontario medical officer of health Dr. Kieran Moore said public health officials are awaiting full genomic sequencing results from four people to determine whether they contracted the new variant of the virus.

Two of those people are in Ottawa. The other two are in the Hamilton area.

Moore made the comments Monday morning in a briefing about the first two Omicron variant cases discovered in Ottawa over the weekend. They are Canada’s first two confirmed cases of the new variant.

The two cases were in people who returned from Nigeria. They flew through Montreal, he said, which is where their initial tests were conducted.