Kristen Villebrun and Wendy Bush hoped they wouldn't have to pray for Chedoke Creek, but four years after they first raised alarm about the water's condition, they were part of an Indigenous full moon ceremony to do just that. About 50 people showed up near Princess Point on the dark and frigid Monday evening for the monthly ceremony, which was particularly special as it focused on Chedoke Creek. The body of water that runs into Cootes Paradise had about 24 billion litres of sewage and storm water runoff leak into it due to a gate being left open.
The University of Saskatchewan's waste water statistics have been updated, and they show a huge rise in COVID-19 viral load in each of the three cities it monitors: Saskatoon, North Battleford and Prince Albert. Saskatoon's numbers were up 172 per cent, based on averages of two individual daily measurements in this reporting period, which went up to Jan. 2, according to the University of Saskatchewan's reporting on its website.
New data from researchers at Dalhousie University show that Omicron was in Nova Scotia wastewater weeks before it was identified by the province — and even before the new COVID-19 variant was reported by South Africa. Graham Gagnon, professor, and director of the Centre for Water Resource Studies confirmed in an email that: “Our team detected Omicron , retrospectively, in Nova Scotia wastewater in mid-November and will be able to provide further information in the future.”
Wastewater samples in Saskatoon are seeing a major increase in the Omicron variant since it was detected for the first time in the city last Tuesday. The latest samples tested by the Global Institute for Water Security (GIWS) at the University of Saskatchewan show Omicron constitutes 64.1 per cent the overall COVID-19 viral load in the Saskatoon sample. It is an increase of 808.2 per cent since the variant was first detected in Saskatoon wastewater on Dec. 21. The viral load in Saskatoon's wastewater has increased by 87.7 per cent since then.
Researchers at Saskatoon's Global Institute for Water Security say they've found the highest amount of COVID-19 since the study began. In a report released on Monday, the institute said samples taken on Aug. 15 and 17 showed the highest amount of COVID-19 RNA in its wastewater samples. It showed a 348 per cent increase in viral RNA in samples taken from Aug. 12-17, compared to a week before.
