Wastewater Surveillance for SARS-CoV-2 RNA in Canada - August 2022 - An RSC Policy Briefing

For a more recent perspective on the explosion10 of the literature relevant to the COVID-19 pandemic, a search of Web of Science that updates the Choi et al. [...] With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic about seven or eight academic laboratories that were already analyzing environmental water samples for genetic markers of microorganisms pivoted their efforts in the period of March to May 2020 to include or to completely focus on the detection and quantification of SARS-CoV-2 and its variants in Canadian wastewaters. [...] The infrastructure and scientific knowledge and methodology developed during the pandemic for the use of SARS-CoV-2 wastewater surveillance in Canada, particularly over the first year, was largely built from grassroot efforts led by groups in academic laboratories in partnership with wastewater utilities and public health agencies across the country. [...] The City of Ottawa with the University of Ottawa, the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO) Research Institute and Ottawa Public Health was a leading group in Canada that initiated wastewater sampling in April 2020. [...] In Ontario, early in the pandemic, wastewater analyses for SARS-CoV-2 were also developed in other regions, with the universities of Waterloo and Windsor joining University of Ottawa in providing leadership in development and application of the technology.