With just days to go until the Ontario government stops funding wastewater surveillance, researchers and residents who use the data fear crucial information about COVID risk is about to go dark, just as a new wave is spreading across Ontario.

Earlier this year, the Ontario government confirmed that it would stop funding the province’s widely respected wastewater surveillance program after July 31. At the time, a spokesperson said the government was ending the program, believed to cost in the range of $15 million a year, because the federal government was expanding its wastewater surveillance program and it didn’t want to duplicate the efforts.

The federal government currently operates four testing sites in Ontario — all in the GTA. It has said it wants to expand its program in Ontario to eight to nine potential sites. The Ontario program gathers surveillance at more than 50 sites.

With the end of provincial funding fast approaching — and a summer COVID-19 wave now beginning to surge in the province — there are growing fears that people who rely on the data on COVID-19 and other diseases will be left in the dark.