The City of Drumheller has joined over a dozen different municipalities throughout the province to check for COVID RNA in wastewater over time.
Director of Protecting Companies Greg Peters introduced Drumheller was one of many collaborating municipalities through the Monday, January 17 Committee of the Entire assembly.
“The City was approached by the Cumming College of Medication (on the College of Calgary) to take part,” City of Drumheller communications officer Erica Crocker tells the Mail. “This system is absolutely funded by Alberta Well being Companies (AHS) to advance analysis on the College of Calgary and College of Alberta.”
Each the College of Alberta and the College of Calgary are conducting analysis on COVID RNA in wastewater, although their information shouldn't be comparable on account of completely different testing protocols for every facility. It is usually troublesome to match the completely different municipalities participating within the research as, in response to the Centre for Well being Informatics web site, “...communities have completely different proportions of residential and industrial water use contributing to their municipal wastewater.”
Samples are collected on the predominant wastewater remedy plant and despatched to Calgary twice every week, with outcomes obtained inside a 24-hour interval.
As a result of testing necessities needing a 24-hour composite pattern, solely the central wastewater plant was eligible for this research; no samples from the East Coulee wastewater plant are included on this research, and the city doesn't presently have the power to check additional up the road at raise stations.
In the course of the Committee of the Entire assembly, Mr. Peters defined between January 6 and January 12 the quantity of COVID RNA discovered within the city’s wastewater samples had risen considerably.
“The testing is useful for each the municipality and the province to look at an upcoming spike in instances inside communities,” Ms. Crocker mentioned.
To view the information for Drumheller or the opposite municipalities participating within the research, go to https://covid-tracker.chi-csm.ca/ and look at it underneath the Wastewater tab; municipalities partnering with the College of Calgary are labeled in crimson whereas blue denotes municipalities partnering with the College of Alberta.