News that the province is shutting down wastewater surveillance for COVID-19 and other infectious diseases has left Simcoe-Muskoka’s associate medical officer of health “disappointed.”
“It is really unfortunate because I think the rest of the world is certainly embracing this (science), so I’m not quite sure why they’re not continuing this very important infectious disease surveillance tool let alone for COVID, but also for influenza and other infections,” said Dr. Colin Lee from the Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit.
The Ontario wastewater surveillance network that began in 2020 as a way to track COVID-19 in wastewater includes 59 sampling sites across Ontario, covering about 60 per cent of the province’s population.
In Simcoe County, there are sampling sites including Barrie, Orillia, Midland and Collingwood. Samples are taken at least weekly, sometimes more often.
“Surveillance is one of the cornerstones of how we track diseases,” said Lee, noting there’s little other surveillance of COVID-19’s spread now since there isn’t much testing going on anymore.
“We used to track every single case, we don’t do that anymore,” he added.
Samples were sent to Ontario universities for lab testing and the system tracked not only COVID-19 in wastewater, but also influenza, H5N1, MPox and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV).
Public health units could upload and access information on a provincewide dashboard, and could see the disease signals in wastewater up to two weeks before cases would show up in the population.
“(It) is extremely useful because it’s easy to do, it allows us to predict infectious disease activity, as opposed to understanding it after the fact,” said Lee, noting public health was able to communicate to local health-care providers what to expect over the next week or more.
“It’s a dream tool, really … When (a dream) is shattered, it’s quite disappointing,” he said.
The Ontario government announced it will no longer fund the program, which will end July 31. A federal program exists, but with only four sample sites in Ontario and all of them in Toronto, it’s a drop in the bucket compared to the provincial program.
“If we only have four sites in Ontario … that’s going to be quite a bit more difficult to understand the utility of the tool and how the nuances of the changes in the levels reflect the disease activity,” said Lee.
The Public Health Agency of Canada, which operates the federal wastewater surveillance program has said there is work underway to expand the testing sites in Ontario, but it’s unclear to what extent and when the expansion will take place.
“It is … very disappointing to us as well as, I think, most public health practitioners because, at the end of the day, it’s probably not a huge amount of monetary investments into something that’s quite useful and effective,” said Lee.
With such limited testing, Lee said the data will be less useful (maybe useless) for predicting disease and for understanding the science behind wastewater monitoring and its future implications.
“Five years ago, we didn’t have this and we relied on looking at history and what diseases would do,” said Lee. “But now, this is a very useful tool in real time we can use to tell people and ourselves and the health-care system what to expect.”
There is some advocacy coming from the public health sector and from opposing government parties to keep the program going.
Peterborough’s public health unit, for example, was considering funding its own wastewater surveillance program.
“We hope (the provincial government) will change their mind in due time,” said Lee.
The Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit says it isn’t considering its own surveillance system at this time, but, by autumn, if the program isn’t reinstated, Lee said the health unit may look for collaboration options to see if it can fund and co-ordinate a local program.
“I hope we can somehow continue this come fall,” said Lee.
— With files from Taylor Pace
