Two Ontario epidemiologists are warning that recent changes to the province’s COVID-19 pandemic strategy risk uncontrolled transmission of the virus, while at the same time, limiting the ability to measure its spread.
Raywat Deonandan, epidemiologist and associate professor at the University of Ottawa, and Colin Furness, infection control epidemiologist and associate professor at the University of Toronto, both say they aren’t convinced the province’s new approach will be able to protect Ontarians and the broader health system from the impact of a surge of the highly-infectious Omicron variant.
“There seems to be an acceptance that transmission will be out of control the next few weeks and maybe there is a silent hope that unrestrained transmission might result in sufficient immunity in the population without much cost,” said Deonandan.
