Late arriving seventh wave of COVID detected in Windsor-Essex wastewater

Another wave of COVID-19 has been detected in local wastewater more than a month after the Ontario COVID-19 Science Advisory Table declared the seventh wave of the pandemic in the province.

“We've been seeing elevated levels for the past couple of weeks,” said Mike McKay, director of the Great Lakes Institute for Environmental Research (GLIER). “It's highly transmissible and we're seeing a lot of breakthrough infections.”

McKay said wastewater levels revealed that another version of the Omicron strain is present after recent testing. He said it indicated people who've been vaccinated or even boosted once or twice are being infected or re-infected.

This while local hospitals report an increase in COVID admissions and public health units record an uptick in related deaths.

“It means we have to remain vigilant,” McKay explained. “A lot of the mitigation measures that were introduced early the pandemic are still useful. I mean, the big thing I think is that people ensure that they're up to date on their shots and boosters.”

McKay echoed what he said in previous interviews following the sixth wave that most COVID waves in southwestern Ontario arrive later than other locations in the province.

“London has been reporting some very high levels of COVID and wastewater recently and that’s skewing the data for our entire region,” McKay said. “Were elevated but we're not seeing the high levels of virus in wastewater that we're seeing in London.”

McKay told CTV News wastewater testing efforts now involve monitoring for the monkeypox virus and polio in Michigan.

He said GLIER is working with the City of Detroit while continuing to monitor wastewater in southwestern Ontario.

“The last data I've seen from the province from August 8, one confirmed case of monkeypox in Windsor-Essex,” McKay said. “Seventy-five per cent of the cases of the province are in the GTA.”

“Across the river in Detroit, there are about two-thirds of the entire cases of Michigan. So right now there are about 80 cases in Michigan. Two-thirds of those are in the Metro Detroit area. A lot of concern from public health right now about summer festivals and people congregating and maybe they're going to be seeing an upswing in the number of cases of monkeypox. So they're very interested in us starting to monitor wastewater for Detroit for monkeypox, and we'll be doing it for our other municipalities that we're working within the region."