The N.W.T. now has a virus 'dashboard' so you can see COVID-19, flu and RSV trends

Data collected by wastewater monitoring in six N.W.T. communities is being put to a new use: an online dashboard that tracks how much COVID-19, flu and RSV are in those communities.

The N.W.T. government announced the new dashboard Wednesday in a news release. It covers Yellowknife, Behchokǫ̀, Fort Smith, Fort Simpson, Hay River and Norman Wells.

The dashboard is updated once a week on Tuesdays. For the most recent reporting period, as of Wednesday, it didn't have data for Hay River but showed COVID-19 was still being detected to a high or moderate level in all the other communities. No detection was noted for flu or RSV.

A chart showing average viral loads in Yellowknife suggested COVID-19 cases were way up at the end of July and beginning of August and are still higher than average in September. Norman Wells and Behchokǫ̀ saw similar spikes around the same time period.

The dashboard's release comes a few days after Kami Kandola, the N.W.T.'s chief public health officer, said COVID-19 numbers are on the rise with 54 known cases counted between June and August. She said those numbers were still rising in September.

Kandola said those cases included 15 people who were hospitalized and had a positive COVID-19 test.

In Wednesday's news release, the government said wastewater monitoring helps show "early warning signs" of virus activity so public health officials can address the situation.

It said weekly samples are being collected from the six communities and more communities can join if they wish.