HSN researchers mark one year of detecting COVID-19 in northern wastewater
This week marked one year since researchers at Health Sciences North started to test wastewater in the region for COVID-19.
Experts at the Health Sciences North Research Institute (HSNRI) are now looking at the results for several communities across the northeast, including Sudbury, North Bay, Sault Ste. Marie and the Porcupine region (Timmins, Kapuskasing and Moosonee.)
They've also been monitoring the output from Laurentian University.
In the last few days, they've noticed a downward trend in COVID-19 levels, which could indicate the northeast has hit a plateau.
"The idea is … everything that will go out of our system is collected in the wastewater and if you have some way to measure it, you can find out the concentration of the thing you want to measure," said researcher Gustavo Ybazeta.
"We are using a technique able to amplify the signal of the remnants of the RNA that's basically the signature of the (COVID-19) virus in the wastewater."
Ybazeta used last month's spike with the Omicron variant as an example.
"Numbers that we obtained through the wastewater, they were going through the roof in some places," he said. "We were seeing numbers up to that we hadn't even seen in previous waves."
It's work that's helping public health officials do their job and is now more important than ever, given how Ontario recently changed its PRC testing guidelines.
"The testing system right now is down at the Kelly Lake wastewater treatment plant, so it's taking all the wastewater from all of Sudbury, all of New Sudbury and we can watch the trends working with that," said Burgess Hawkins, from Public Health Sudbury and Districts.
Public Health Sudbury and Districts, the City of Greater Sudbury and the researchers are working collaboratively to try and come up with a way where they can publish the results in a manner that's easy to understand.
Several cities have already started to routinely publish findings, including Ottawa.
"The trend lines are pretty obvious but they don't always give you an A equals B correlation," said Hawkins, who said the health unit wants to see the data published.
In the past year, the team at Health Sciences North made a lot of improvements to the procedure with Ontario's consortium of testing sites. For example, what used to take them 10-12 hours to get results, may take 6-8 hours now.
"We share our best results and techniques with other labs and look at how other labs are doing their results," said Ybazeta. "We're trying to produce the best measurement of this signature and we're getting better."
"People are getting very tired in the lab because it's been a long year, but we're very happy to share this data, to do what we can to beat this pandemic," he added.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
BREAKING Israel attacks Iran, Reuters sources say; drones reported over Isfahan
Israel has attacked Iran, three people familiar with the matter told Reuters, as Iranian state media reported early on Friday that its forces had destroyed drones, days after Iran launched a retaliatory drone strike on Israel.
American millionaire Jonathan Lehrer denied bail after being charged with killing Canadian couple
American millionaire Jonathan Lehrer, one of two men charged in the killings of a Canadian couple in Dominica, has been denied bail.
Nearly half of China's major cities are sinking, researchers say
Nearly half of China's major cities are suffering 'moderate to severe' levels of subsidence, putting millions at risk of flooding especially as sea levels rise.
Prince Harry formally confirms he is now a U.S. resident
Prince Harry, the son of King Charles III and fifth in line to the British throne, has formally confirmed he is now a U.S. resident.
Judge says 'no evidence fully supports' murder case against Umar Zameer as jury starts deliberations
The judge presiding over the trial of a man accused of fatally running over a Toronto police officer is telling jurors the possible verdicts they may reach based on the evidence in the case.
Health Canada to change sperm donor screening rules for men who have sex with men
Health Canada will change its longstanding policy restricting gay and bisexual men from donating to sperm banks in Canada, CTV News has learned. The federal health agency has adopted a revised directive removing the ban on gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men, effective May 8.
Colin Jost names one celebrity who is great at hosting 'Saturday Night Live'
Colin Jost, who co-anchors Saturday Night Live's 'Weekend Update,' revealed who he thinks is one of the best hosts on the show.
Sports columnist apologizes for 'oafish' comments directed at Caitlin Clark. The controversy isn't over
A male columnist has apologized for a cringeworthy moment during former University of Iowa superstar and college basketball's highest scorer Caitlin Clark's first news conference as an Indiana Fever player.
'Shopaholic' author Sophie Kinsella reveals brain cancer diagnosis
Sophie Kinsella, the best-selling author behind the 'Shopaholic' book series, has revealed that she is receiving treatment for brain cancer.