Wastewater Testing is One of the Best Forms of Assessing Climbing COVID-19 Rates

Montreal is reopening, but with the city having ended wide-access to PCR testing in early 2022, how can Montreal assess if COVID-19 cases are on the rise?

The city's decision to limit public access to PCR tests boiled down to a limitation in staff and lack of resources. Quebec can administer a maximum of 30,000 PCR tests per day. However, the province reached 60,000 daily tests during the Omicron wave.

Wastewater testing was taking place in Montreal, Quebec City and 63 other locations across Canada – a 6 month pilot project that ended in December 2021. The city has decided to resurrect the project to track COVID-19 cases in lieu of limited PCR testing. Those infected with COVID-19, even without symptoms, will shed the virus in their waste.

Catherine Hankins, co-chair of Canada's COVID-19 task force & professor of public & population health at McGill University believes waste water testing is vital in assessing COVID-19 rates.

She said wastewater testing doesn't only tell us if there are spikes in COVID-19 cases, but also assesses which variants the public is infected with.

Hankins says ultimately wastewater testing is the best, but if there is an uptick in COVID-19 cases in Montreal, we will find out through other ways, such as testing the antibody levels of pregnant women in routine blood tests and in hospitalizations. She said there needs to be a way to report at home antigen tests to keep track this way.

Many business owners rejoice in reopening as they took an economic hit as a result of mandated lockdowns. Some business owners citing decreased clientele as a result of the vaccine passports.

Hankins said we have to balance the economy and the public's mental health through allowing in person meetings, removing the lockdown and curfew and ultimately opening Montreal's society back up.