Saskatchewan COVID-19 wastewater numbers show massive decrease
Global News
The latest findings from wastewater testing show large decreases in COVID-19 levels in three Saskatchewan cities as well as a drop in levels of unidentifiable subvariants.
The latest wastewater sampling in three Saskatchewan cities shows huge declines in the amount of COVID-19 present. And the samples didn’t pick up the subvariants scientists previously couldn’t identify.
The viral load dropped 85.3 per cent in Saskatoon, 90.2 per cent in North Battleford and 65.7 per cent in Prince Albert, from the week prior.
Toxicologist John Giesy, team lead at the USask Global Institute for Water Security, which takes the measurements, called the numbers good news.
“In addition to that big relative drop, the actual absolute values are getting back to right where we were when we started this last wave,” he said.
He added that this translates into a lot fewer infected people in the three cities.
He told Global News the lack of public health mandates coupled with the highly infectious BA.2 Omicron subvariant is what boosted the previous week’s readings so high.
As well, the samples didn’t detect the virus material which the team previously couldn’t identify, which accounted for 17.6 per cent in North Battleford in the last reporting period.
The findings this week show BA.2 once again counts for 100 per cent of the detected virus.
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