Sourced: healthunit.com
The Omicron variant is now confirmed to be in London. This has led the Middlesex-London Health Unit (MLHU) to release new COVID recommendations for the holiday season.
Dr. Alex Summers, the Acting Medical Officer of Health for the MLHU, as well as the medical officers of health for the Huron-Perth and Southwestern Public Health Units joined forces in the media briefing to outline the new recommendations:
- Everyone should limit their indoor social gatherings to no more than 10 people. All attendees 12 and older should be vaccinated.
- All unvaccinated individuals 12 and older should avoid non-essential indoor contact with anybody except their immediate family.
- Where possible, individuals should work remotely.
“One of the reasons for these recommendations is the confirmed arrival of Omicron in our region,” says Summers. “The Omicron cluster that we reported earlier this week now includes 50 people. 50 per cent of those cases are fully vaccinated. Fortunately, zero have been hospitalized. We are also investigating potential Omicron cases that are not linked to this cluster, including at least one individual who screened positive for Omicron but did not travel and is not linked to a traveller.”
The health officials hope by the public keeping these recommendations in mind, the region can avoid rapid increases in cases of the new variant. That raises the question of what happens with the holidays quickly approaching?
“In other jurisdictions, the presence of the Omicron virus, even with high vaccination coverage, has seen a rapid rise in cases. Reassuringly, the symptoms remained mild in vaccinated people. We hope this continues to be the case. But I do think if we see large holiday gatherings where things like masks and vaccines aren’t on top of mind, we will see cases go up and that’s truly the target of these recommendations.”
Comments