Wastewater from HK, China Flights to be Tested at YVR

Wastewater from China and HK flights will be tested for Covid

Just to reiterate, starting on January 5, travellers from China, Hong Kong and Macau, regardless of vaccination status, must present a negative Covid-19 test taken 48 hours before departure for flights to Canada. The measure will be in place for 30 days and then reassessed.

And what is very interesting is that Vancouver International Airport or YVR will take part in a pilot project where wastewater from certain aircraft from the above-mentioned places will be tested to track the surge of the virus which has spread like wildfire in China. 

Wastewater from YVR is already being monitored at the Iona Wastewater Treatment Plant, just north of the airport.

Travellers must present negative Covid-19 tests

But Trevor Boudreau, director of external relations for Vancouver Airport Authority said a few months ago YVR was approached by the Public Health Agency of Canada and the BC Centre for Disease Control about sampling wastewater not just from the terminal but also from the depot where plane waste is deposited.

Boudreau said following the latest travel measures, health officials approached YVR again for a pilot project "to directly sample waste from certain aircraft arriving from specific destinations".

The government is also expanding its wastewater testing at Toronto's Pearson International Airport.

PHAC will be starting the pilot in the last two weeks of January and will run it for the short term focused on flights from China and Hong Kong, as there are no direct flights from Macau.

Dr Isaac Bogoch, an infectious diseases specialist with the University Health Network in Toronto, said wastewater testing can be useful in tracking emerging mutations of Covid-19.

Testing can help track emerging Covid variants

"It's really important to have a good understanding of which variants are circulating, which ones are in Canada, and that just gives us some very valuable information that is often actionable," he said.

He also noted it was important to be transparent with the data.

"It's extremely important to share this data with the world and when we have open platforms for sharing genomic sequencing, we're in a much better place and we just have a much more well-informed global population," he said, adding such monitoring is a necessary next step as Covid-19 ebbs and flows.

It's also a non-evasive way to collect data if people are not being tested on arrival.