The Ontario government is taking steps to help slow the spread of dangerous variants of COVID-19.
It’s laid out a six-point plan to keep a closer eye on the variants in the community and slow community transmission.
Part of the plan enhances the Federal government’s announcement to test and quarantine international travellers to Canada. The Chief Medical Officer of Health has issued a Section 22 order mandating on-arrival testing at Toronto Pearson Airport effective February 1, 2021.
"We welcome the new measures announced by the federal government today, but we need a stop-gap to prevent new cases, including variant cases, from arriving in Ontario until those measures are fully in place," said Premier Doug Ford. "That's why our government is taking immediate and decisive action, which includes mandatory testing of incoming international travellers and providing additional layers of protection for the people of Ontario, especially our seniors.”
Premier Ford also indicated they were working on additional testing protocols for land crossings. Currently, land border crossings are open for essential travel only, including cross-border health care workers and truck drivers to deliver essential goods.
A plan is also being developed to expand rapid testing in high priority settings, such as long-term care homes, retirement homes, essential workplaces, schools, and congregate living settings.
To strengthen case and contact management, the government is asking asymptomatic contacts of confirmed cases to get retested after day 10 of their quarantine. The entire household of all contacts and symptomatic individuals will also be asked to stay home until the contact has a negative test.
In order to track different variants of COVID-19, the government is increasing lab capacity to test the incoming samples. A genomics database will be implemented to track these variants.
The three primary variants of concern that are being monitored globally are the UK, South African and Brazil variants. Currently, there are 51 confirmed cases of the UK variant in Ontario. Data shows the variants are more easily transmitted than the common COVID-19 virus but to date, there is no strong evidence it has poorer outcomes.
