Viral load in wastewater in North Battleford for week ending Aug. 12. (Submitted photo/University of Saskatchewan)

By battlefordsNOW Staff

COVID-19 monitoring

U of S study shows COVID-19 increase in North Battleford wastewater

Sep 1, 2021 | 6:02 PM

The University of Saskatchewan’s viral wastewater monitoring is showing increases of the COVID-19 variant in North Battleford’s wastewater for the period assessed.

The City of North Battleford recently released information about the study on its website.

Based on the results of monitoring for the week ending Aug. 12, researchers detected a significant increase in the viral RNA load in North Battleford’s wastewater.

The city stated most people with COVID-19 start shedding the virus through their stool within 24 hours of being infected. When the virus is detected in the wastewater this information helps provide population-level estimates of the rate of infection in a city, indicating whether the number of infected people is increasing, decreasing or staying the same.

For the week ending Aug. 12, researchers identified a 10-fold increase in viral RNA load in North Battleford’s wastewater.

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This rise in the viral RNA load reflects an increase in COVID-19 infections in North Battleford. In a partly-vaccinated population, this may or may not be reflected by new case numbers in upcoming weeks, the city said.

The U of S researchers are partnering with the city, the Saskatchewan Health Authority and Public Health Agency of Canada to identify increases in the virus in North Battleford’s wastewater.

The wastewater testing is another tool in addition to swab testing to monitor the presence of COVID-19 in a community.

Kerry McPhedran, with the University of Saskatchewan’s Department of Civil, Geological, and Environmental Engineering Department, who is a lead researcher in the project, says the study helps provide data to anticipate what might come next.

“If somebody gets infected, they start shedding the virus almost right away,” he told battlefordsNOW. “But you don’t start getting symptoms for about three to five days. So you are not going to get tested right away.”

McPhedran noted based on the monitoring period, the North Battleford viral load is high but it’s about half of the Prince Albert level, and far less than Saskatoon’s, which is currently higher than Prince Albert.

When comparing, researchers adjust for differences in population, while factoring that each person produces about the same amount of wastewater.

“Basically we’ve been showing that five to seven days before we have an increase in case load, that the wastewater is basically predicting that the case numbers are going to go up,” McPhedran said. “That is where the value in this wastewater [monitoring] is at.”

More information on the study is available here.

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Angela.Brown@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @battlefordsnow