Wastewater from some flights arriving at Vancouver airport to be tested for COVID-19

As Canada implements new COVID-19 rules for travellers arriving from the People's Republic of China, Hong Kong and Macao, Vancouver International Airport (YVR)saidit will be part of apilot project to test wastewater from select aircraft.

Starting Thursday, the federal government will require air travellers arriving from China, Hong Kong or Macao to provide evidence of a negative COVID-19 test taken before their departure.

The temporary health measures, in place for 30 days, are a reaction to a surge in the virus in China and the limited epidemiological and other data available, the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) announced Saturday.

B.C. Health Minister Adrian Dix said he supports Ottawa's decision.

Wastewater pilot project

Vancouver International Airport saidit is workingwith PHAC and the B.C. Centre for Disease Control (BCCDC) on wastewater testing, with the aim of tracking which coronavirus variants are circulating.

Wastewater from YVR is currently monitored through existing communitysampling at theIona Wastewater Treatment Plant, located justnorth of the airport.

YVRwas approached byPHAC and the BCCDCa couple of months agoaboutsamplingwaste from the airport terminal building as well as from the depot where plane waste is deposited, said Trevor Boudreau, director of external relations for Vancouver Airport Authority.

Following the latesttravel measures, health officials approached YVRonce again fora pilot project "to directly sample waste from certain aircraft arriving from specific destinations," Boudreau said.

The government also announced expanded wastewater testingat Toronto's Pearson International Airport.

PHACsaidthe pilot projects, which it hopes will be running within the last two weeks of January,will be short-term and focused on flights from China and Hong Kong.Boudreaunotedthere are no direct flights to Vancouver from Macao.

Testing can help track COVID-19 mutations

Dr. Isaac Bogoch, an infectious diseases specialist with the University Health Network in Toronto, saidwastewater sampling can be useful in tracking emerging mutations in the COVID-19 virus and emerging variants of concern.

"It's really important to havea 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.

Bogoch notedthat data transparency is critical.

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

"I don't think there's many silver bullets with COVID-19, and this certainly isn't one of them," he said. "It's justgradually moving forward in a smart direction, gettingbetter data [that] help drive smart policy."