With provinces no longer using PCR testing for most cases, testing wastewater for SARS\u002DCoV\u002D2 has become an increasingly important form of COVID surveillance
Canada was one of the first out the gates for wastewater surveillance for SARS-CoV-2. It hasn’t been all smooth sailing. At first, university-based labs took the initiative. “We went in and started talking amongst each other and developing methods and sampling,” said Manuel, a public health doctor and senior scientist with the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute. “Really, the academic labs carried it forward whatever way they could with whatever money they could.
“Wastewater sampling is a leading indicator — a harbinger of sorts,” said Dr. David Naylor, co-lead of Canada’s COVID-19 immunity task force. Hospitalizations lag any wave of infections by at least a few days. In the U.S., Omicron-associated mutations were picked up in wastewater sampling in California, Texas and New York State at least a week before the first American case was identified on Dec. 1.As with everything, there are pros and cons, Giesy said.
A research technician prepares samples of wastewater at the University of Saskatchewan’s wastewater testing facility on Sept. 30, 2021.Despite its relative newness for COVID wastewater testing has influenced public health decisions and interventions in Ontario and elsewhere. Early in the pandemic, “we said things are ramping up in Saskatoon, so they moved a lot of people and vaccine up here early on,” Giesy said.
Wastewater testing for SARS-CoV-2 is currently performed at about 250 sites across Canada, but, of those sites, only 25 municipalities have publicly viewable data, and only a fraction make the data easily available, which frustrates Manuel. When he asks, why not be more open, people — public health, other academics — tell him the science isn’t ready, that we don’t understand it enough, that the data are hard to interpret.
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