While the data certainly stinks, a local wastewater monitoring project spells good news for London, Ont., When it comes to combating the spread of COVID-19.
For most of the pandemic, researchers at the University of the West monitored the viral load of SARS-CoV-2, which is excreted in the feces of infected individuals, by taking samples from London’s five wastewater treatment plants.
This week, the latest findings showed the first significant drop in viral load so far during the current Omicron wave.
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Christopher DeGroot, an assistant professor in Western’s mechanical and materials engineering department, as well as the project’s co-lead researcher, says the decline was first observed when last Thursday’s wastewater data was compared to last Tuesday’s.
Another drop in virus load was seen in the results of a sample taken Sunday.
“We do believe that, based on these findings, we most likely passed the peak of Omicron infections in London,” DeGroot said.
Data collected from the wastewater monitoring project between 10 October 2021 and 14 January 2022.
via 519covid.ca
DeGroot says the findings are consistent with those reported by the Middlesex-London Health Unit regarding a potential high point in cases.
During a media briefing on Tuesday, acting medical officer of health Dr. Alex Summers said that although COVID-19 figures are high, “some early indications consistently indicate that we are seeing a plateau in the burden of disease in our community.”
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Ontario Health Minister Christine Elliott also noted on Wednesday morning that the province was beginning to see ‘glimpses of hope’ in the fight against COVID-19’s Omicron variant, with cases expected to peak this month, followed by a peak in hospitalizations and ICU admissions.
The detection of COVID-19 distribution has changed in recent weeks and daily case counts are no longer considered a fully reliable reflection of the virus’ activity, thanks to changes in suitability for PCR testing.
DeGroot says it has made wastewater management more valuable than ever.
“We do not really know the actual case numbers, but if someone is infected, we know that they are dumping virus into the sewer system that we pick up at the wastewater treatment plant,” DeGroot said, adding that continuous monitoring of wastewater will be essential to see or the downward trend continues.
“There are going to be changes in behavior, things like school openings and possible reductions in health restrictions, and so all of this could change the number of contacts people have and the number of infections that occur.”
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First announced as a launch in July 2020, the project, co-led by fellow Western professor Eric Arts, has evolved into its ability to detect COVID-19 data in wastewater.
“We started doing genomic sequencing on the wastewater late last year and that was just before the Omicron wave,” DeGroot said.
“We could see that Omicron’s presence in the wastewater went from almost zero when we started doing the sequencing to the case now where it is clearly dominant.”
The City of London also has a hand in the project by providing the samples analyzed by researchers.
Gary Burrows, a supervisor of wastewater operations for the city, says oversight projects such as the one in London have sparked numerous discussions in wastewater circles.
Burrows says this includes sharing knowledge through networks such as the Water Environment Association of Ontario.
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“I’m a councilor on this, I represent professional wastewater operators for Ontario, and we’re submitting reports and seeking information from other municipalities that take place during this COVID era to see if we can help our people within our wastewater network system,” Burrows said.
The work also excited Burrows about the future of wastewater monitoring, which he believes could be used to detect other items of interest, such as new viruses or items that are harmful to the environment.
“I think the research has really opened up what wastewater-based epidemiology can do.”
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