Ontario ending wastewater surveillance program which tracked COVID-19 infection

Ontario is quietly winding down the wastewater surveillance initiative which provided scientists with crucial data about infection rates in the province during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In an email, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Environment, Conservation and Parks said the province is making the move “to avoid duplication” as the federal government also conducts wastewater surveillance across Canada and is moving to expand its sampling to additional sites in Ontario.

“Moving forward, the Ministry of Health will be working with the Public Health Agency of Canada on a data sharing agreement to ensure that the province can continue to analyze Ontario specific wastewater data,” the ministry said.

Wastewater surveillance has emerged as a crucial tool for monitoring the level of infection in the population.

During the pandemic, when there was sometimes a lack of access to tests or fewer people getting tested, wastewater data became a key metric of how much viral activity was present in the population. The data was subsequently used to help track whether the province was moving into or emerging from a wave of infection.

The province has been doing weekly wastewater testing in seven regions, including the Greater Toronto Area. Samples have been collected from across 59 wastewater treatment plants, pumping stations and sewersheds in all 34 public health units. Public Health Ontario has then analyzed the data and made it publicly available online.

The program was based on the original work of the Ontario COVID-19 Science Advisory Table.

Public health experts have lauded wastewater surveillance as a useful new tool for tracking the prevalence of COVID-19 and other infections in the population.

It was not immediately clear how frequently the federal government plans to test or at how many sites.