Quebec was among the first to test wastewater for COVID-19. Then it stopped funding the research

Early on in the pandemic, Quebec was at the forefront of research into testing wastewater for SARS-CoV-2 as a way to track the progression of its spread.

The approach is now being used with increased frequency across North America, including in Ontario, to assist with the early detection of a rise in cases, spot neighbourhood outbreaks and prepare for an eventual rise in hospitalizations.

But funding for Quebec's pilot project ran out in December, just as the highly contagious Omicron variant was spreading rapidly among the population.

The province stopped making PCR tests available for the general population weeks later, on Jan. 5, after it was overwhelmed by the demand.

Experts say testing wastewater has the potential to be a useful tool to offset this lack of data.

"This method is really meant to complement existing systems," said Prativa Baral, an epidemiologist and doctoral candidate at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

"But I think especially because our province doesn't have a rigorous testing capacity right now, this would be an excellent opportunity to get some pooled community-level data that would allow us to monitor our trends broadly."

Next Monday, Jan. 31, Quebec will further ease restrictions, citing a decline in hospitalizations in recent days.

At this point, however, experts say it will be difficult to quickly measure whether the change in policies has led to a resurgence in cases. A study released last week concluded that, for a period in December, there were five times as many cases as had been officially reported.

The general public is now being asked by the Quebec government to submit the results of their rapid tests to assist with tracking the pandemic.

Sarah Dorner, a professor at Polytechnique Montréal, began testing wastewater for SARS-CoV-2 in March 2020 as part of the province's pilot project. Her funding expired just as the Omicron variant began to widely in December.

Dorner said the technique — which is already used to detect other diseases, such as polio — has the potential to be a useful public health tool.

While wastewater data is not as precise as case counts, it can help understand the trajectory of disease in a community when PCR testing isn't available.

"I had always imagined that wastewater with rapid testing could be a really nice package as part of a solution for pandemic management," she said.