Shelter wastewater testing seen as way to get ahead of outbreaks
Researchers from Carleton University will begin testing wastewater from an Ottawa homeless shelter next week with the aim of identifying COVID-19 outbreaks before they can spread.
The team, headed by Banu Örmeci, director of Carleton's Global Water Institute, is part of a provincewide push to expand wastewater testing for COVID -19 in order to better inform public health and limit transmission.
By testing in shelters, Örmeci said, some of the city's most vulnerable people might be better protected from COVID -19.
Ottawa has led the country in testing wastewater for COVID -19. Because virus is shed in feces, wastewater surveillance can provide early evidence when COVID-19 cases are spreading rapidly. Evidence of growing community spread often shows up in wastewater days before it does in test results.
Ottawa Public Health publishes daily results of citywide wastewater testing and will soon have data from daily testing for one of the more transmissible variants of concern — B117.
The province is supporting a number of wastewater surveillance projects through a new $12-million initiative, including the one being done by Örmeci's lab to do targeted testing at specific buildings.
Örmeci said homeless shelters have been identified as a priority for that targeted wastewater testing.
“This is so important. They really are the most vulnerable in the city.”
She and her team have spent recent weeks investigating homeless shelters in the city to know where best to begin.
To get accurate information from wastewater surveillance of a shelter, she noted, the samples have to be taken at the optimal times of day, and there must be good access to necessary pipes.
“Shelters are not like regular buildings. Clients leave early in the morning and come back at 4 p.m. The key thing is to sample at the right time, when clients are there,
and find a location where you can grab a sample from all of the building, rather than one floor. It is a bit tricky to find the right pipe.”
She won't say which shelter they will begin taking samples from starting next week, but said it could be expanded to others. She and her team are working with the
City of Ottawa and Ottawa Public Health.
Her team has also been taking samples from various zones in the city to help public health officials understand case counts and trends at a neighbourhood level.
Örmeci's team has also been doing wastewater surveillance on residences at Carleton, part of their research funded by the Jarislowsky Foundation and Carleton University COVID-19 Rapid Response Research Grants.
Researchers have moved into high gear during the pandemic to improve understanding the spread of COVID-19 across communities and at specific locations.
Researchers from uOttawa and CHEO have been collecting citywide wastewater information for Ottawa Public Health and are now doing testing for the variant B117, based on a test developed by CHEO Research Institute cell biologist Tyson Graber.
The testing in homeless shelters comes at a time of growing concern about rising case counts in shelters.
In recent weeks, Ottawa has seen significant COVID -19 outbreaks at some homeless shelters.
“This is really important right now, especially for a vulnerable community like the homeless,” Örmeci said.