Researchers hope to soon tests for new “sub-lineages” of the Omicron variant that have emerged in other parts of the world.
Researchers are scouring Saskatoon’s sewers for new strains of COVID-19 as the virus is spreading widely in the city.
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Three tests performed last week found the level of SARS-CoV-2 jumped compared to last week, making it the third-highest reading on record.
University of Saskatchewan toxicologist Dr. John Giesy said it appeared infections peaked two weeks ago. But levels of the virus in the city’s sewage are staying stubbornly high.
“The bottom line is: a lot of people are infected,” Giesy said.
The tests, performed at each of the city’s three wastewater plants, measure the “load” of the virus in the city’s sewage. Since infected people have traces of the virus in their poop, it allows researchers to estimate how many people who use the city’s toilets are infected.
This week the mean levels of virus jumped 44 per cent compared to the previous week.
“What we’re trying to tell the public is that we’ve hit a peak and that it’s going down. The problem is that it’s been going down for two weeks … and this week it popped up again,” Giesy said.
Researchers can also delve further into the discharge to find out what type of COVID-19 is spreading in the city.
Right now BA.2 — an iteration of the Omicron variant of COVID-19 — is dominant, accounting for more than 95 per cent of the virus found in the latest round of tests.
Approximately four per cent of the samples, Giesy said, was a version of the Omicron variant researchers cannot yet identify.
He is concerned that other strains of Omicron that have emerged around the globe — like BA.3 — will eventually surface in Saskatchewan.
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“The key thing for Saskatoon is that we were basically at 100 per cent BA.2. So now we’ve got about four per cent of Omicron that is something other than BA.1 or BA.2. What we don’t know right now is what it is,” Giesy said.
He said those variants are notable because they may be even more infectious than BA.2, even if the Omicron variants as a whole appear to cause less severe illness than the Delta variant that preceded them.
He said researchers across Canada are making a test to identify those specific strains, but that it could take months.
“It’s really kind of an art form. Once we’ve designed that, we have to test that and validate it,” Giesy said.
The latest epidemiology report from Saskatchewan’s Ministry of Health found there were 390 Saskatchewan residents with COVID-19 in the province’s hospitals as of last Wednesday.
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