Ontario health minister says Omicron cases expected to peak this month

Two weeks after Ontario imposed sweeping public health measures in an effort to blunt the rapid spread of COVID-19 due to the Omicron variant, the province’s minister of health says that cases of the virus are expected to peak in the next several days.

“Omicron cases are expected to peak this month, with a peak in hospitalizations and ICU admissions to follow,” Health Minister Christine Elliott said during a news conference on Wednesday.

“New hospitalizations are slowing and are now doubling closer to every two weeks," she said.

Elliott’s comments come a day after Premier Doug Ford revealed that “positive news” regarding the province’s restrictions would be coming later this week.

Ford doubled down on those comments on Wednesday when he said that the forthcoming "positive announcement" would be beneficial to restaurants and gyms which are currently shuttered.

Since then, CTV News Toronto has learned that Ontario will gradually loosen restrictions starting with indoor dining on Jan. 31, according to sources familiar with the matter. Ford is expected to make the official announcement on Thursday at Queen's Park.

On Jan. 5, the province introduced public health measures, including the closure of in-person learning at schools until Jan. 17, the reduction in capacity at personal care services and shopping centres and the halting of indoor dining at restaurants and bars until Jan. 26.

Ontario’s Chief Medical Officer of Health has said that he and his team have been monitoring key metrics related to the province’s COVID-19 battle such as hospitalizations, ICU admissions, and deaths related to the virus, as well as test positivity rate and the virus’s reproductive number.

On Wednesday, hospitalizations linked to COVID-19 in Ontario reached 4,132 and ICU admissions reached 589 – the highest reported number in months.

However, Moore said earlier this week that the number of cases is decelerating in terms of hospitalizations and ICUs.

Before that, Moore had warned that he could not “guarantee” that measures would be lifted on Jan. 26. When asked if his opinion on the timeline had changed since those comments were made and as students return to school across the province, he said that any decision to lift public health restrictions would be one made by the government.