Monitoring the COVID-19 virus in wastewater through the Canadian Wastewater Survey: preliminary data release (2021-04-01 to 2022-01-31)

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Release date: February 18, 2022

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The Centre for Population Health Data (Statistics Canada) is collaborating with the National Microbiology Laboratory (Public Health Agency of Canada) on a wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) program to measure levels of SARS-CoV-2 in the wastewater of five Canadian municipalities, respondents of the Canadian Wastewater Survey. As symptomatic and asymptomatic COVID-19 patients shed SARS-CoV-2 in their feces and urine, WBE programs have been set up in Canada and abroad to help monitor the progression of the pandemic. ^Note ^Note

Biweekly collection of wastewater took place at 15 treatment plants in Halifax, Montreal, Toronto, Edmonton and Vancouver, serving close to 8.7 million Canadians. The solid fraction of the samples was analyzed at the National Microbiology Laboratory (Winnipeg) by RT-qPCR to produce estimates of the concentration of the virus in the sewersheds.

Samples and data from this collaboration have supported the COVID-19 pandemic’s surveillance efforts and the expansion of epidemiological knowledge. ^Note ^Note ^Note ^NoteAdditional information about the project can be found at the National Collaborative Center for Infectious Diseases.

Data in the PHES-ODM format

The data is released in the Public Health Environmental Surveillance Open Data Model. The dataset consists of 9 tables plus a lookup table. There are three metadata tables describing the dataset.

Tables.csv: Table names and their description.
Variables.csv: Variable names and their description.
Lookup_Variables.csv: Description of values for all categorical variables

Wastewater data: levels of SARS-CoV-2 (April 1 2021 to January 31, 2022).

Notes

Footnote 1.

Ahmed W, Simpson SL, Bertsch PM, Bibby K, Bivins A, Blackall LL, Bofill-Mas S, Bosch A, Brandão J, Choi PM, Ciesielski M, Donner E, D'Souza N, Farnleitner AH, Gerrity D, Gonzalez R, Griffith JF, Gyawali P, Haas CN, Hamilton KA, Hapuarachchi HC, Harwood VJ, Haque R, Jackson G, Khan SJ, Khan W, Kitajima M, Korajkic A, La Rosa G, Layton BA, Lipp E, McLellan SL, McMinn B, Medema G, Metcalfe S, Meijer WG, Mueller JF, Murphy H, Naughton CC, Noble RT, Payyappat S, Petterson S, Pitkänen T, Rajal VB, Reyneke B, Roman FA Jr, Rose JB, Rusiñol M, Sadowsky MJ, Sala-Comorera L, Setoh YX, Sherchan SP, Sirikanchana K, Smith W, Steele JA, Sabburg R, Symonds EM, Thai P, Thomas KV, Tynan J, Toze S, Thompson J, Whiteley AS, Wong JCC, Sano D, Wuertz S, Xagoraraki I, Zhang Q, Zimmer-Faust AG, Shanks OC. Minimizing errors in RT-PCR detection and quantification of SARS-CoV-2 RNA for wastewater surveillance. Sci Total Environ. 2022 Jan 20;805:149877. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.149877.

Return to note 1 referrer

Footnote 2.

Chik AHS, Glier MB, Servos M, Mangat CS, Pang XL, Qiu Y, D'Aoust PM, Burnet JB, Delatolla R, Dorner S, Geng Q, Giesy JP Jr, McKay RM, Mulvey MR, Prystajecky N, Srikanthan N, Xie Y, Conant B, Hrudey SE; Canadian SARS-CoV-2 Inter-Laboratory Consortium. Comparison of approaches to quantify SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater using RT-qPCR: Results and implications from a collaborative inter-laboratory study in Canada. J Environ Sci (China). 2021 Sep;107:218-229. doi: 10.1016/j.jes.2021.01.029.

Return to note 2 referrer

Footnote 3.

A sensitive and rapid wastewater test for SARS-COV-2 and its use for the early detection of a cluster of cases in a remote community. Daigle et al. Submitted.

Return to note 3 referrer

Footnote 4.

Peterson SW, Lidder R, Daigle J, Wonitowy Q, Dueck C, Nagasawa A, Mulvey MR, Mangat CS. RT-qPCR detection of SARS-CoV-2 mutations S 69-70 del, S N501Y and N D3L associated with variants of concern in Canadian wastewater samples. Sci Total Environ. 2021 Oct 28:151283. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.151283.

Return to note 4 referrer

Footnote 5.