Experts say Canada needs to develop a robust system to detect COVID-19 activity in the absence of wide-scale PCR testing. Since the onset of the Omicron variant, provinces and territories have scaled back access to gold-standard PCR testing, citing the lack of capacity to keep up with demand and the need to free up health-care resources.
Experts say Canada needs to develop a robust system to detect COVID-19 activity in the absence of wide-scale PCR testing.
Dr. Caroline Colijn, a mathematician and epidemiologist at Simon Fraser University, said there are currently "too many infections" in Canada to expand access to PCR tests to everyone to find out the true number of infections.
Colijn said she anticipates an integrated system that would incorporate wastewater data, along with PCR and rapid test results, in a way that's designed to paint a more accurate picture of how much COVID-19 is in a population and inform people about the risk of contracting the virus. However, he said the average person can rely on wastewater data to assess the risk of contracting COVID-19 in their community since it's "much more cost-effective" and "tells us similar information" to PCR testing.
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