SARS-CoV-2 viral titer measurements in Ontario, Canada wastewaters throughout the COVID-19 pandemic
Patrick M. D’Aoust, Nada Hegazy, Nathan T. Ramsay, Minqing Ivy Yang, Hadi A. Dhiyebi, Elizabeth A. Edwards, Mark R. Servos, Gustavo Ybazeta, Marc Habash, Lawrence Goodridge, Art F. Y. Poon, Eric J. Arts, R. Stephen Brown, Sarah Jane Payne, Andrea E. Kirkwood, Denina Simmons, Jean‐Paul Desaulniers, Banu Örmeci, Christopher J. Kyle, David Bulir, Trevor C. Charles, R. Michael L. McKay, Kimberley Gilbride, Claire Oswald, Hui Peng, Vince Pileggi, Menglu L. Wang, Arthur Tong, Diego Orellano, Adebowale I. Adebiyi, Matthew Advani, Simininuoluwa O. Agboola, Dania Andino, Hussain Aqeel, Yash Badlani, Lena Carolin Bitter, Leslie M. Bragg, Julia Brasset-Gorny, Patrick Breadner, Stephen Brown, Ronny Chan, Babneet Channa, Jinjin Chen, Ryland Corchis-Scott, Matthew Cranney, Hoang Dang, Nora Danna, Rachel Dawe, Christopher T. DeGroot, Tomás de Melo, Hadi A. Dhiyebi, Justin Donovan, Walaa Eid, Isaac Ellmen, Joud Abu Farah, Farnaz Farahbakhsh, Meghan Fuzzen, Tim Garant, Qiudi Geng, Ashley Gedge, Alice Gere, Richard M. Gibson, Kimberly Gilbride, Eyerusalem Goitom, Qinyuan Gong, Tyson E. Graber, Amanda M. Hamilton, B. Haskell, Samina Hayat, Hannifer Ho, Yemurayi Hungwe, Heather Ikert, Golam Islam, D. Planer Joseph, Ismail Khan, Richard Kibbee, Jennifer J. Knapp, James Knockleby, Su-Hyun Kwon, Opeyemi U. Lawal, Line Lomheim, R. Michael L. McKay, R. Menon, Élisabeth Mercier, Zach Miller, Aleksandra M. Mloszewska, Ataollah Mohammadiankia, Shiv Naik, Delaney Nash, Anthony Ng, Abayomi S. Olabode, Banu Örmeci, Alyssa K. Overton, Gabriela Jimenez Pabon, Vinthiya Paramananthasivam, Jessica Pardy, Valeria R. Parreira, Lakshmi Pisharody, Samran Prasla, Melinda Precious
Abstract
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Province of Ontario, Canada, launched a wastewater surveillance program to monitor SARS-CoV-2, inspired by the early work and successful forecasts of COVID-19 waves in the city of Ottawa, Ontario. This manuscript presents a dataset from January 1, 2021, to March 31, 2023, with RT-qPCR results for SARS-CoV-2 genes and PMMoV from 107 sites across all 34 public health units in Ontario, covering 72% of the province's and 26.2% of Canada's population. Sampling occurred 2-7 times weekly, including geographical coordinates, serviced populations, physico-chemical water characteristics, and flowrates. In doing so, this manuscript ensures data availability and metadata preservation to support future research and epidemic preparedness through detailed analyses and modeling. The dataset has been crucial for public health in tracking disease locally, especially with the rise of the Omicron variant and the decline in clinical testing, highlighting wastewater-based surveillance's role in estimating disease incidence in Ontario.