Article content
Two months after the Ontario government pulled the plug on wastewater surveillance, Ottawa health and research institutions have teamed up to extend the program in the city for a least another year.
Calling it an innovative solution that allowed for better monitoring of COVID-19 in the community, CHEO, the CHEO Research Institute, the University of Ottawa and Ottawa Public Health announced an extension of wastewater surveillance on Friday.
Article content
In addition to monitoring COVID-19 levels in wastewater, the program monitors levels of influenza, RSV and mpox in Ottawa. The program has been extended until September 2025.
Wastewater surveillance is a “game-changer,” said Dr. Jason Berman, CEO and scientific director at the CHEO Research Institute.
“This innovation sparked a movement around the world that empowered communities to be proactive in their response to crises in health care,” he said.
Information learned through monitoring wastewater has helped CHEO and other hospitals better prepare for surges of illnesses.
“Wastewater has been an important tool for CHEO to plan and keep track of illnesses that affect our community,” said Alex Munter, the outgoing CHEO president and CEO.
He said continuing the surveillance “will give us a head start when responding to spikes rather than after kids arrive in our emergency department.”
Ottawa’s wastewater monitoring project, which is recognized globally, was the first in Canada to detect in wastewater the virus causing COVID-19. It began as a research project in 2020 and became a real-time, reliable method of public health surveillance.
Rob Delatolla, the uOttawa researcher who has led the wastewater surveillance program, said his research group had received emails, letters and phone calls in recent months advocating for the continuation of wastewater monitoring.
Ottawa will be one of the few communities in Ontario where wastewater surveillance continues after the provincial government cut funding for the program early, with little advance notice, at the end of July.
Share this article in your social network