1st Omicron cases in Canada landed at Montreal’s Trudeau International Airport | Globalnews.ca

The two travellers who have been identified as Canada’s first cases of the Omicron variant of COVID-19 first entered the country through the Montreal-Trudeau International Airport before continuing on to Ottawa, Ontario’s top doctor confirmed Monday.

Dr. Kieran Moore first said Sunday that the province had detected its first two cases of the new variant of concern in two individuals in Ottawa who had recently travelled from Nigeria.

Ontario’s chief medical officer of health added in an update with reporters Monday morning that those individuals first landed in Montreal and were tested there, with the positive results passed to the province from Quebec’s public health agency.

They then travelled on to Ottawa, Moore said.

Ottawa Public Health is now conducting contact tracing to see whether anyone else has contracted the virus in connection with the original two cases.

Moore said Monday that the province is currently looking at four other cases — two more in Ottawa and two in Hamilton — as possible instances of the Omicron variant. Public health is just waiting on genomic sequencing to confirm or rule out the variant.

“I would not be surprised if we found more in Ontario,” Moore said Monday.

On Saturday, OPH released a rare public statement advising of a possible exposure to COVID-19 during a Nov. 24 rideshare between the Montreal airport and Ottawa’s Barrhaven neighbourhood.

That trip, on the evening of Nov. 24, might have seen the driver of the vehicle exposed to COVID-19.

Global News asked OPH if this incident is connected with the confirmed cases of the Omicron variant but the health unit said it could not provide further details.

“To protect privacy and personal health information, Ottawa Public Health is unable to disclose additional information about the exposure,” a spokesperson said in a brief statement.

While there are two cases of the variant confirmed in recent travellers, the rideshare incident involved only one passenger who tested positive, according to OPH’s initial statement.

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