Twice-weekly local testing for COVID variants to end, scientist says
Rapid testing for COVID-19 variants in Ottawa's wastewater will cease at the end of March, a scientist involved in the work says.
Tyson Graber, an associate scientist with the CHEO Research Institute, recently said on social media and in an email to CBC that while the institute will continue to monitor the wastewater, a "faster and cheaper" method detecting variants of concern (VOC) — in which the lab takes samples twice a week and reports the results weekly — will end this month.
By comparison, other labs in Waterloo, Guelph and London have generally sampled and reported on results every two weeks, he said.
"Identifying emerging [variants of concern] and estimating growth of a VOC in a community is more difficult at this low frequency," he said via email.
Ontario's Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks told the institute earlier this year funding for the faster testing would run out this month, he added.
When reached for comment on Friday afternoon, the ministry said it would provide a response on Monday.
A handy alternative
Dr. Gerald Evans, an infectious disease specialist at Queen's University, said detecting variants in wastewater is one of the methods scientists have relied on during the pandemic to find variants that haven't yet appeared in test samples taken from people.
"That would actually give us a forewarning, for instance, if a whole new variant with a new Greek designation was appearing," Evans said.
"We're going to have to continue to rely on the genomic testing that's done on people."
Saturday marked three years since the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic, and Dr. Theresa Tam, Canada's chief public health officer, said the virus has reached a relatively steady state with no new variant-driven waves of infection.
Omicron subvariants continue to spread, but hospitalizations, ICU admissions and deaths have stabilized.
Ottawa Public Health also said last week that COVID-19 indicators remain generally stable at moderate to high levels in the city.
The health unit did report three more deaths involving people with COVID.
