The Public Health Service of Canada analyzes Winnipeg wastewater samples near the city’s three wastewater treatment plants. The Fed determines the relative volume of SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19, and also tests the virus to see which variants of the virus are predominant. According to graphs released Monday, the viral load on sewage collected near the North End Water Pollution Control Center in West Kildonan was falling in the weeks leading up to March 17. The North End plant is the largest of the city’s three wastewater treatment plants. The viral load was rising, however, near the South End Water Pollution Control Center, located south of the St. Louis ring road. Vital. The viral load was relatively flat near the West End plant, the smallest of the city’s three sewage treatment plants. It is located west of the Perimeter and south of Wilkes Avenue. The test revealed that the Omicron variant was the predominant strain of the virus in all three test sites, with smaller amounts of the Delta variant also present in the samples. The Public Health Agency of Canada has not updated Winnipeg’s charts since it published data for the weeks ending February 22. Manitoba Public Health received updates in the meantime, but refused to disclose the data on the grounds that they belonged to the federal government. Sewage monitoring is only one indicator of COVID-19 transmission. Public health officials say they also rely on COVID hospitalization and death data, which is now published weekly, and workplace absenteeism reports, which are not made public.
