Toronto Public Health confirms first three cases of Omicron variant in city
A Toronto Public Health (TPH) spokesperson said the first three cases identified are the three new cases identified Friday and two confirmed earlier this month.
On Friday, a fourth case was identified: a 31-year-old man who lives in Toronto, who is reported to have returned to Toronto from his hometown of Kumanovo, Kosovo in the spring and has been working as a maintenance man at the Air Canada Centre.
According to TPH, this case is not a new person as it was detected by the Ontario Health Insurance Plan (OHIP) as having the Omicron variant in late August. The virus infection was detected in a urine sample, and TPH said it was able to confirm the Omicron variant in the sample.
The other two cases that were identified in recent days in people within the TPH network of clinics in Toronto:
A 32-year-old woman is believed to have contracted the Omicron variant infection in April and is currently hospitalized in the Royal Victoria Hospital.
A 51-year-old woman who lives in Scarborough and has been diagnosed with the virus has symptoms that are considered similar to those of the Omicron variant and is not currently experiencing any symptoms. The woman previously lived in Ottawa, where the Omicron variant infection was confirmed in a urine sample.
In addition to the three new cases identified Friday, two other cases have been confirmed with the Omicron variant this month. The first case was a 39-year-old woman who had previously returned to Ontario from Albania and is in self-isolation at home.
The second was a 42-year-old man who lives in Etobicoke who is self-isolating at home due to symptoms that suggest the illness is more serious than the virus.
On Friday, in addition to the person who is self-isolating, there is another case identified in the Toronto area: a 45-year-old woman who is in self-isolation at home because she has not developed any symptoms that suggest she has been infected.
According to an electronic case report that has been reported