With limited access to PCR testing, wastewater analysis has been key in determining the prevalence of COVID-19 in different communities over recent months. Experts explain what’s involved in the process and how to make sense of the data.
. The process involves measuring the concentration of COVID-19 genetic material in wastewater to understand its prevalence within a community, explained Elizabeth Edwards, a professor in the department of chemical engineering and applied chemistry at the University of Toronto. Edwards is also part of a research team that tests COVID-19 levels in wastewater gathered from the Greater Toronto Area .
Once the data is gathered, the results are reported on a regular basis to public health units. Methodologies may differ slightly from province to province but the goal is to detect the levels of COVID-19 that are present, Servos said.
“A lot of people are getting COVID at this point, and the wastewater signal is completely consistent with that,” he said. “It is going up across all the regions and we're seeing more and more people getting COVID.”Over the last four weeks, Ontario has seen a consistent rise in COVID-19 wastewater signals, which will continue to increase, Servos said. The province is already seeing concentrations well above what was surveyed in the Delta and Alpha waves, he said.
In Calgary, Alta., where Hubert lives, he pointed to a steady increase in COVID-19 concentration levels in wastewater collected over the last month or so. Each data point gathered and plotted has been, he said. While the most recent data point shows a slight decrease in the amount of SARS-CoV-2 RNA copies detected per day, Hubert said he anticipates concentration levels will continue to rise overall.
Data from her own province is showing a steady increase in concentration levels of COVID-19 in wastewater samples as well. But these levels are nowhere near where they were at the peak of the Omicron wave earlier this year, she said. “It doesn't matter if you can't get tested or you're vulnerable or you're asymptomatic,” he said. “The wastewater picks that up, so that's an integrated signal that's independent of the clinical testing.”
Several other factors can affect COVID-19 signals in wastewater as well, Hubert said. In Calgary, for example, water from precipitation is kept separate from wastewater collected in the sewage system, he said. In other cities, both are combined, which would dilute the covid-19 signal in those samples. Different communities also have varying proportions of residential and industrial water use contributing to their municipal wastewater.
Earlier this month, Dr. Peter Juni, the head of Ontario’s COVID-19 Science Advisory Table, said the province is seeingWhile Hubert commends this attempt to make the data easier to digest, it isn’t easy to form a direct connection between COVID-19 levels in wastewater and the number of currently active cases in a community. This kind of comparison has not been done in Alberta, Hubert said.
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