Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health will start to share wastewater monitoring data from the University of Guelph starting next week.
A news release from the university said researchers started testing water from Guelph and Orangeville wastewater plants just over a year ago. The researchers said the data will “fill an information gap left since the highly infectious COVID-19-causing variant overwhelmed testing capacity and led health units to stop testing most Canadians.”
“Where there’s a vacuum of information, people start to make their own information,” lead researcher Lawrence Goodridge said in the release. “We lack accurate testing information, so there’s a vacuum. This wastewater data is being used to fill that vacuum.”
According to Goodridge, COVID-19 indicators may appear in wastewater a week prior to seeing symptoms in infected people.
The U of G shares wastewater data with provincial health authorities to help with considering changes to policy measures. With daily COVID-19 case counts underestimated due to testing limitations, Goodridge said wastewater data can help track local trends.
“Knowledge is power. This gives the public information to make decisions,” he said. “A lot of people want to know whether it’s safe to go out, or whether there will be another wave. This will allow individuals to (make) their own decisions about what they want to do.”
The researchers plan to continue their testing for at least another year. The data will be available on WDG Public Health’s COVID-19 dashboard next week.
The Region of Waterloo also shares wastewater data from testing sites in Cambridge, Kitchener and Waterloo.
