Ontario’s Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Keiren Moore says there are 4,600 cases of Omicron infection known in Ontario as of Tuesday but just 15 such patients have been admitted to the hospital. Further, he said, zero Omicron patients have so far been admitted to an ICU. Moore said Omicron cases seem to be doubling every two or three days and he still expects what he called an “exponential” growth of such cases. He said that he himself has arrived at no conclusion about the ultimate severity of Omicron but there are reasons to be optimistic. He said there are no children in Ontario in pediatric ICUs and when asked he said that the government (Cabinet) will have to decide as to whether classrooms will reopen after New Year’s.

Intensive care in the hospital, COVID-19

All Ontario is keeping a watchful eye on ICU occupancy as a gauge of just how serious the current wave of Omicron variant infection will be to both the health care system and to the personal health of each citizen. The government issued a new case total of 3,453 Tuesday and calculated a seven-day rolling average of 3,153 today up from 1,400 a week ago. Admissions to intensive care units are up by a single patient to 165 from Monday. This indicates that the 600-bed capacity of all ICUs is at 27.5 percent usage. A common and perhaps reasonable response to Omicron is that ICU capacity rather than gross numbers of cases is a better measure of just how sick anyone may get if he/she contracts the infection.

A poll by Forum Research on what Ontarians plan to do for Christmas was done on December 14. But since then six days have passed. Those days have been chock-full of official and unofficial concern (both thoughtful and wildly fearful) about the Omicron variant. Urgent appeals to stay home have been sounded and renewed lockdowns put in place. The poll is here. Your guess is a good as ours on how the flux of public thinking runs on whether to visit grandma or whatever.

Those living in proximity to Eglinton Ave will no doubt feel the pain of downtown residents and business owners at news that in order to build the new Ontario Line it will be necessary to close Queen St between Bay and Victoria Sts for four years. It’s a bit like killing the patient to save him. And of course, that four years is only a guess. It might be five or six years. Such gigantic projects executed in the public good recall the 16-year calamity known as the Boston Big Dig. The re-routed highway project was started in 1991 and finished in 2007. Many Bostonians remain bitter.

A man of 24 has been scammed by the lend-me-your-card fraud as he walked home from Randolph Ave and McRae Drive Sunday. His mom has posted to Facebook that he was no sooner home than the bank alerted him that his debit card (card and PIN) had been used to withdraw $3,000 from his account. This is a classic example of the scam that police departments are ringing bells about all across Ontario. The cab’s payment system is rigged to record the PIN and the real debit card is kept by the perps while the victim gets a lookalike card. It’s a good idea to read the TPS news release site every morning.

Traffic navigates new road troubles

Slipping away

Much less scary to enter ravine

It’s been a whole two-and-a-half months since the City repaired the chronically unstable pavement on Moore Ave at Mud Creek. But this depression in the road still wants to be part of the ravine, just as it was decades ago. These pictures taken Sunday also reveal a lovely sunny morning

Research from the University of Hong Kong is examined and explained by UK medical public commentator Dr. John Campbell Sunday. He says it seems the Omicron virus tends to be active in the bronchia as opposed to the lungs. This would account for the apparently less-lethal impact of the O-virus. It creates a bronchitis infection rather than the pneumonia condition that floods the lungs causing death, Campbell says.

An Ontario Lotto Max player has won the $70 million jackpot in Friday night’s draw.  Two of the draw’s Maxmillion prizes of $1 million each were also claimed by ticket holders in the province, as were two runner-up prizes of $250,000 apiece. A third Maxmillion prize went to a ticket holder in Quebec. The jackpot for the next Lotto Max draw on Dec. 21 will be an estimated $18 million.

Eglinton and Laird

St Clair and Mt Pleasant

A couple of cm of snow is making it slippery underfoot and tricky for drivers Saturday morning across South Bayview. Above is the scene about 10 a.m. at Eglinton Ave and Laird Drive. It’s expected to snow on and off through the day with an estimated collection of maybe as much as 10 cm.

Teens cling to each other as they crawl down pipe at New York City tenament fire

Two teens have scaled down a pipe from a deadly fifth-floor fire at a New York City tenement. WCBS News

Self driving bus hits a tree in Whitby/Kyle Hocking City News

Durham Region Police say the “safety attendant” on a self-driving municipal bus was critically injured when the bus slammed into a tree at Victoria St and Watson Rd in Whitby Thursday afternoon. The man, 23, is now in a Toronto trauma centre. There was no one else aboard the bus. There’s no word on what might have gone wrong. Release

Peel police seek masked jewellery store robber

Peel Region cops are intent on finding the second man, the masked character below, who violently robbed a Mississauga jewellery store in November 2020. They’ve already apprehended and seen the first perp, Olakunle Banjoko, 30, of Toronto, sentenced to nine years and seven months in prison. The suspects stole over $1.5 million worth of jewellery and gold, which has yet to be recovered. The outstanding robber is well masked but the police don’t give up and of course, somebody knows who it is.

Somebody knows

Violent jewellery store robbery