Wastewater monitoring of SARS-CoV-2 enables early detection and monitoring of the COVID-19 disease burden in communities and can track specific variants of concern. We determined proportions of the Omicron and Delta variants across 30 municipalities covering >75% of the province of Alberta (population 4.5 million), Canada, during November 2021–January 2022. Larger cities Calgary and Edmonton exhibited more rapid emergence of Omicron than did smaller and more remote municipalities. Notable exceptions were Banff, a small international resort town, and Fort McMurray, a medium-sized northern community that has many workers who fly in and out regularly. The integrated wastewater signal revealed that the Omicron variant represented close to 100% of SARS-CoV-2 burden by late December, before the peak in newly diagnosed clinical cases throughout Alberta in mid-January. These findings demonstrate that wastewater monitoring offers early and reliable population-level results for establishing the extent and spread of SARS-CoV-2 variants.

对 SARS-CoV-2 的废水监测可以及早发现和监测社区中的 COVID-19 疾病负担，并可以跟踪关注的特定变体。我们确定了 2021 年 11 月至 2022 年 1 月期间，覆盖加拿大阿尔伯塔省（人口 450 万）75% 以上的 30 个城市的 Omicron 和 Delta 变体的比例。较大的城市卡尔加里和埃德蒙顿比较小的城市表现出更快的 Omicron 出现和更偏远的城市。值得注意的例外是小型国际度假小镇班夫和麦克默里堡，这是一个中等规模的北部社区，有许多定期出入的工人。综合废水信号显示，到 12 月底，Omicron 变体代表了接近 100% 的 SARS-CoV-2 负担，在 1 月中旬整个艾伯塔省新诊断的临床病例高峰之前。这些发现表明，废水监测为确定 SARS-CoV-2 变体的范围和传播提供了早期和可靠的人口水平结果。