First cases are confirmed in city
Toronto Public Health warns of possible exposure to Omicron at downtown café
The GTA’s latest suspected and confirmed Omicron cases include three Toronto residents and a staff member of a downtown Toronto café, prompting public health authorities to warn customers about possible exposure to the COVID-19 variant.
On Friday, Toronto Public Health reported three confirmed cases of the Omicron variant, all linked to recent travel.
Two individuals recently returned from travel from Nigeria, while another individual recently returned from Switzerland, according to a news release.
The agency is asking residents to get tested if they travelled to South Africa, Eswatini, Lesotho, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Namibia, Egypt, Nigeria or Malawi between Nov. 1 and Dec. 6.
The public health unit is also warning about a possible Omicron exposure for anyone who visited Piccolo Caffe E Vino at 111 John St., last weekend between 9 p.m. Nov. 26 and 2 a.m. Nov. 27, and between 9 p.m. Nov. 27 and 2 a.m. Nov. 28.
“The case linked to this establishment is under investigation by TPH as a suspected case of the Omicron variant, due to the individual’s recent travel history to South Africa,” TPH said in a news release Friday.
“There is no risk to anyone attending the establishment outside of these dates and times,” the public health agency said, adding it is contacting the café worker’s close contacts and asking them to self-isolate for 10 days and get tested.
Restaurants offering indoor dining are required, under provincial legislation, to gather contact information of diners but Piccolo Caffe E Vino kept no such log.
TPH is asking, “out of an abundance of caution,” for anyone who attended the café during those times to get tested immediately and monitor for COVID-19 symptoms for 10 days after visiting the café, and to self-isolate if symptoms arise.
Residents are also asked to get tested for COVID-19 immediately if they have cold or flu-like symptoms.
Researchers around the world are racing to discover if Omicron is more contagious than COVID-19’s now-dominant Delta strain, and if the new variant is any better than Delta at overcoming defences against the virus provided by vaccines.
Brian Connelly, the café’s owner, said his fully vaccinated staff have scrupulously checked diners’ vaccination status and identification, and wiped down surfaces, but acknowledged they haven’t collected diners’ contact information.
He said he wrongly believed provincially issued QR codes, used by some people instead of paper vaccination certificates, automatically logged contact data.
“There’s hundreds of places around the city that don’t do half the stuff that we do,” Donnelly said. “We try to follow everything by the book but there was this one thing we didn’t do — it’s hard, man, for small businesses.”
The café remains open but all staff who work with the COVID-19-infected person are isolating for 10 days and have tested negative, he added.
Tony Elenis, chief executive of the Ontario Restaurant Hotel & Motel Association, said the “vast majority” of eateries are following protocols, including logging patron information but “there are unintentional mistakes sometimes.”
Of fears over the Omicron variant, Elenis said: “It’s too early to know the impact on our industry. We went through this with the (now-dominant) Delta variant.”
“I believe it’s a big bump on the road, not a roadblock.”
As public health officials from various agencies urged all eligible residents to get fully vaccinated for maximum protection from infection and serious illness, new local Omicron cases include a child in York Region.
York health authorities said “the case is travel-related from the southern African region. The youth, under 12 years old from the city of Vaughan, returned to Canada” on Nov. 22 and has isolated at home since then.
That follows news Thursday of the first Omicron cases in the GTA — a Durham Region resident and a Halton Region resident, both linked to recent travel.
On Friday, Durham Region confirmed its second case of the variant.