B.C. expands COVID-19 wastewater monitoring to Prince George

The B.C. Centre for Disease Control has expanded its COVID-19 wastewater monitoring program to Prince George, and plans to include more municipalities in the province's North.

Natalie Prystajecky, head of the Environmental Microbiology Program at the BCCDC Public Health Laboratory, said the organization began monitoring wastewater in Prince George for COVID-19 this summer, and startedincluding the data on its surveillance dashboard last week.

"We had always wanted to expand wastewater testing to all health authorities in the province," Prystajecky told CBC's Daybreak North. "It just took us a little bit longer to get it into the North."

The organization monitors wastewater in Metro Vancouver, on Vancouver Island, and in the Interior.The program collects wastewater from sewage treatment plants and tests for viruses like COVID-19, Influenza A and B, and Norovirus.

Prystajeckysays it's a good way for health authorities to see if levels of infection are rising throughout a region.

"It's what we call passive surveillance," she said. "We can survey an entire population, an entire city, without having to interact with a patient."

The BCCDChas been monitoring wastewater for diseases since before the pandemic, Prystajecky says, but it became a more popular method of surveillance after COVID-19 broke out.

On its website, the BCCDC says wastewater surveillance is less invasive and cheaper than community-wide testing, provides information in communities where testing or access to health care isn't readily available, and provides unbiased and consistent population-level data in order to inform public health responses.

Levels rising

So far, Prystajecky says, data from Prince George shows increasing levels of COVID-19, as is the case elsewhere in the province, but doesn't indicate significant levels of Influenza A or B yet.

Prystajeckysays it wasn't able to monitor wastewater in the North until recently because the region lacked the specialized equipment and staff to collect samples, which are then sent to Vancouver for testing.

The BCCDChopes to expand the programto another one or two communities in the north, she says.