With the Omicron variant pushing the number of cases of COVID-19 detected in Ontario to near record daily highs, the challenges the pandemic is presenting to the province appears to be changing.
On Tuesday, Dr. Kieran Moore, Ontario’s chief medical officer of health, shared that COVID’s latest variant to cause havoc around the globe has now become the dominant strain in Ontario, causing an “exponential growth” in the number of cases of the virus detected in the province. 
However, while Moore says Omicron appears to be somewhere between four to eight times as transmissible as COVID’s Delta variant — the previously dominant strain of the virus in Ontario — the province’s hospital system isn’t yet feeling the burden of the unprecedented surge in cases. 
The seven-day average in daily reported cases reached 3,153 on Tuesday — more than double that of a week before. However, hospitalizations in the province are only up eight per cent and Ontario’s ICU capacity has remained stable amid the surge, Moore said. 
The chief medical officer added that while early data about Omicron's virulence is promising, it's too early to determine that the variant isn't as harmful as earlier strains of COVID. 
In Ontario, only 15 out of 4,600 people confirmed to have contracted Omicron have been hospitalized, but the group is also younger, on average, than the average person to be infected with COVID to date, which generally means they don't face as great a risk from the virus, Moore said.
However, this small sample size in the province seems to reflect what was experienced in South Africa, where a fast-accelerating wave of cases caused by Omicron were not nearly as virulent as previous waves. But Moore cautioned comparing this to how Ontario will experience an Omicron-driven wave, since South Africa's population is much younger than Ontario's, on average.
Still, Ontario’s government recently reimposed public health measures to limit COVID’s spread. Last Friday, the government announced it was putting back in place limits on the number of people who can attend private gatherings as well as events in venues both large and small.
"I think we're being prudent in preparing for the worst," Moore said. "I certainly hope for the best."
Many of the provinces, including Quebec, B.C. and Alberta, have also reimposed similar restrictions.
One issue Ontario now faces, as Moore explained on Tuesday, is around testing. In anticipation of cases continuing to rise, Ontario's government launched a testing "blitz," and the province's testing capacity has nearly maxed out, Moore explained. He said to expect that the government would be changing its testing strategy once again to ensure that health-care workers aren't forced to miss work because of a lack of tests, or slow-returning test results.
"Our (testing) resources must be prioritized to ensure our most vulnerable are protected and that health-care and essential settings remain open and functioning effectively," Moore said.
The chief medical officer also spoke about schools on Tuesday, saying early information collected on Omicron has not made him change his mind about wanting children to return to in-person learning when originally planned in January.
"We're not seeing any significant impact on children's health," he said.

Omicron transforming pandemic challenges in Ontario

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