Ottawa ‘losing the race’ against COVID-19 variants: Etches – CBC

Etches co-signed letter to province calling for stricter measures to curb rise

Apr 06, 2021

Ottawa’s medical officer of health says the current provincewide shutdown is not sufficient to halt gatherings and curb the surge in COVID-19 cases, especially given the rapid rise in variants of concern.

Etches, along with her counterparts in Toronto and Peel Region, penned a letter to Ontario’s Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. David Williams over the weekend calling for stricter measures to be implemented, including a stay-at-home order.

As of Monday, Ottawa has more than 600 confirmed or suspected COVID-19 cases involving variants of concern. The majority of the confirmed cases involved the B117 variant first reported in the U.K. (There is a delay between suspected and confirmed cases as it takes weeks to genetically sequence a sample to confirm which variant it is.)

“We’re losing the race against the variant of concern. We need to make sure we stay home to stop that transmission of COVID, until the vaccine is going to be in place to do that for us,” said Etches.

Read more: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/ottawa-losing-race-against-variants-etches-says-1.5975872