Project to test Thunder Bay wastewater for COVID-19 progressing well, city says

A project that has Thunder Bay wastewater tested for COVID-19 is progressing well, the city's chief chemist said Monday.

The two-year project — a collaboration between the City of Thunder Bay, Thunder Bay District Heath Unit, and Ontario's Ministry of the Environment, Conservation, and Parks — began about two months ago.

At the time, Thunder Bay chief chemist Ian Morgan said the project involved the city sending wastewater samples to a lab elsewhere in Ontario for analysis.

The city is currently in its eighth week of sending samples, which are going to a lab at the University of Windsor, Morgan said.

"Everything is working well," Morgan said. "The results are coming back in, as they're getting shipped up. So at this point of time, everything is going smoothly."

The first eight weeks of sampling and analysis is designed to establish a baseline of results for Thunder Bay. After the eight weeks are up, the city will continue sending one to three wastewater samples weekly for analysis.

"You need multiple results in order to kind of interpret the previous results and the ongoing results," Morgan said. "We're still establishing that baseline at week eight, but ... we are starting to send two samples weekly."

"So we'll be sending samples every Monday and Wednesday to kind of give us some more data points."

The analysis of wastewater, and fecal matter, can detect asymptomatic, pre-symptomatic, and symptomatic COVID-19 infections, Morgan said previously. If an increase is detected in wastewater, that could mean an increase in positive COVID-19 tests is coming.

Samples are currently being collected at the city's water pollution control plant, but could be collected from other places, such as specific neighbourhoods, to help track the virus in the city.