Canada’s Chief Public Health Officer says even though there are still pockets of the country seeing high COVID-19 infection rates due to the Omicron variant, case counts are trending downward. Dr. Theresa Tam says as of January 26th, the seven day average case count of over 19,000 cases reported daily is a 28 per cent decrease from the week prior, and the numbers are declining across all age groups.

However, the National Advisory Committee on Immunization still strongly recommends kids five to 11 get their second doses, waiting at least eight weeks between the first and second dose, and a third dose for moderately to severely immunized compromised children in this age group, and recommends a third dose as well for all children in the 12 to 17 age group.

Federal health officials continue tracking a new sub-variant of Omicron. Dr. Tam calls it the BA-1 variant, and she says it was first detected last November. Canada was one of the first countries to pick up on this variant. There are over a hundred identifications at this point. She says it could potentially mean an increase in the spread of COVID, but there are no indications of additional hospitalizations or severe outcomes.