New data has shown that the Omicron variant was found in Nova Scotia wastewater before it was found in South Africa. The variant was first found in Nova Scotia on the 13th of December, which is a few weeks before it was reported on the 24th of November in South Africa.
The Alpha variant took a few months to take over, Delta took a month and a half, and Omicron took almost two weeks to take over. PCR testing isn’t as common in Alberta as it is in other places, so researchers are looking for COVID-19 and its variants in wastewater all over the state. An associate professor at the University of Calgary, Casey Hubert says that wastewater testing has been able to tell researchers what is going on a week before it is reported to the public. He is one of the project leaders in Calgary.
He also said: ” Wastewater really provides that kind of early warning signal that precedes the case counts.” There is a dashboard set up by Hubert’s team so that people in Alberta can use to see how much COVID-19 there is in the wastewater.
Wastewater is a good indication of how the Omicron variant is spreading and therefore very useful for policy makers.
In Quebec, where PCR testing is only for people who live in high-risk areas and remote areas, Santé Quebec decided not to fund a project that looked at wastewater in the province. In the same week that the Omicron variant was found in the province, a decision was made not to fund the project.
In Montreal, the number of cases didn’t change much each day, which made the wastewater data stay the same. In Quebec City, the number was going up quickly, and the data showed this. Without wastewater testing and increased PCR testing, public health officials won’t be able to tell if cases are going up or down.
