Nicole Hancock
Indigenous community hosts full moon ceremony ...

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.

Indigenous community hosts full moon ceremony to heal Chedoke Creek

wastewater data

Canada to continue testing wastewater for COVID-19 spread

Canada to continue testing wastewater for COVID-19 spread

Although the COVID-19 spread is no longer an ongoing pandemic in the eyes of the World Health Organization, the federal government will still be monitoring potential spread rates through waste water. Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos announced that the Public Health Agency of Canada is partnering with the Canadian Water Network to monitor Canadian wastewater. Duclos said in a statement how this national wastewater surveillance program will help keep Canadians healthy through guidance materials and wastewater data.

COVID-19 surged in Fredericton over holidays, new wastewater data reveals

COVID-19 surged in Fredericton over holidays, new wastewater data reveals

Fredericton had a surge of COVID-19 just after the holidays, newly released wastewater data indicates. The capital was added to the Public Health Agency of Canada's COVID-19 wastewater surveillance dashboard Tuesday night, joining Moncton as the second New Brunswick location on the national website launched nine months ago. Data dating back to Dec. 22 shows Fredericton's seven-day rolling average of viral load, expressed as the number of viral gene copies found in a millilitre of raw sewage, started out at 17 copies/ml.

N.B. wastewater data suggests some COVID-19 cases went undetected in 2021

N.B. wastewater data suggests some COVID-19 cases went undetected in 2021

Public Health officials have raised questions around whether some COVID-19 cases in New Brunswick went undetected in early 2021, after an apparent mismatch between the amount of COVID-19 appearing in wastewater and the province's own COVID-19 testing. The wastewater data shows four apparent spikes of COVID-19 in 2021: on Feb. 8, March 18, April 29 and June 28, all times when there were "minimal cases or positive tests" reported and PCR testing was widely offered. The wastewater testing is conducted by the City of Moncton, which has a partnership with Dalhousie University, and is provided to New Brunswick Public Health. CBC News obtained a copy of the test results, and discussion within the Department of Health about the results, through access to information.

Mask as needed: wastewater data shows COVID levels still higher than last June

Mask as needed: wastewater data shows COVID levels still higher than last June

Go into any store these days and there's a mixture of people wearing masks to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and those who are opting not to wear one. It may have people feeling like they're in COVID-19 limbo. Dr. Hsiu-Li Wang, the Region of Waterloo's medical officer of health, says currently there's "no cut and dry threshold" when it comes to mask wearing and "it will vary according to individual comfort levels."

Waste water in London, Ont. is showing high COVID positivity

Waste water in London, Ont. is showing high COVID positivity

Waste water data has become a valuable asset in determining the level of COVID-19 within a community and in London, it shows an increase. The January surge of Omicron quickly dissipated in February, but COVID cases have seen an increase in the last few weeks based on data from waste water testing data. “You don't want to look at one sample in isolation, you want to look at sort of the trend. And what I've noticed is if I look at the month of February versus the month of March, we're around three times higher,” said Chris DeGroot, an assistant professor at Western University.

COVID-19 wastewater data shows cases are rising again across Canada

COVID-19 wastewater data shows cases are rising again across Canada

Surveillance of wastewater data is suggesting that COVID-19 cases are on the rise again in Canada as provinces have eased public health restrictions. The resurgence is taking place in Ontario, Alberta, Saskatchewan and parts of British Columbia, according to an analysis by Global News. “The reality is that as all of the restrictions come off in terms of masking and the other measures which have been in place for some period of time, we can expect that more cases are going to be out there,” said Dr. Steve Hrudey, chair of the research advisory group of the Canadian Water Network COVID 19 Wastewater Coalition. “The next few days to weeks are going to be important to watch,” he said.

Decline in Toronto's COVID-19 infections could be slowing or plateauing: wastewater data

Decline in Toronto's COVID-19 infections could be slowing or plateauing: wastewater data

Newly released wastewater data suggests that the recent decline in COVID-19 transmission in Toronto could be slowing or even plateauing but the city’s top health official says that she still remains cautiously optimistic about the weeks ahead. The data, which was posted to the city’s website on Friday morning, provides the most detailed look yet at the results of a wastewater surveillance project being conducted in collaboration with researchers from Ryerson University and the University of Toronto.

'It was stunning': Wastewater data shows high levels of Omicron variant in Waterloo Region

'It was stunning': Wastewater data shows high levels of Omicron variant in Waterloo Region

Researchers studying the presence of the virus causing COVID-19 in local wastewater say the amount of Omicron variant detected in the water has increased rapidly over the past few weeks. Mark Servos, the Canada Research Chair in Water Quality Protection, said Omicron spread appeared in wastewater far faster than any other variant to date. "It just went up so dramatically, so quickly," he said at Waterloo Region's weekly COVID-19 update on Friday. "It was stunning."

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