Toronto to develop wastewater surveillance program to detect diseases for FIFA World Cup
Toronto Public Health is developing a wastewater surveillance program to detect the spread of diseases during the FIFA World Cup.
Toronto’s new Medical Officer of Health Dr. Michelle Murti said the pilot will collect sewage samples in areas where fans congregate and test them to detect diseases, such as COVID-19, influenza and RSV.
Murti said the public health unit is looking into whether other illnesses, such as measles, could also be monitored in wastewater given the large international audience that will be congregating in Toronto next summer.
“It’ll just be one more piece of information that we have as part of a larger suite of information that we’re looking at to make sure that we’re keeping people safe and healthy through the games,” Murti said.
The city has said it expects 300,000 out-of-town visitors in Toronto over the course of six World Cup matches starting in June.
Ontario’s COVID-19 wastewater surveillance program, which provided a close to real-time way to track the prevalence of the virus before people showed symptoms during the pandemic, ended last year.
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Dr. Fahad Razak, an internal medicine specialist at St. Michael’s Hospital, said applying this technology to a large scale event like the World Cup is an innovative approach to fill the gap left since the provincial program concluded.
Razak said that program should have been sustained and the disease detection potential of the technology should have been explored beyond COVID-19.
For example, Windsor-Essex County used wastewater surveillance earlier this year to detect a rise in measles infections within the region.
“Measles is a very good example because it is an illness that is so transmissible. If you have a high pocket of unprotected people and you have the emergence of the measles signal within that area, that’s an area where you’d want to do your best from a public health perspective to try and prevent spread,” Razak said.
Razak said wastewater could also be used for opioid surveillance to detect a contaminated drug supply during the World Cup.
“The idea here is – can you use it to make decisions and to intervene in a way that saves people’s lives or reduces illness? That’s the critical question.”
Dr. Lawrence Goodridge, co-lead of the Guelph Wastewater Epidemiology Lab for Public Health, said the province’s decision to end its wastewater program, which monitored 75 per cent of the population, has necessitated smaller scale programs like this one.
The pilot will be useful if a major outbreak spreads at the games, but the drawback is that the reach is limited, he said.
“People are going to be moving around, they’re coming into Toronto, but they’re also going to be moving around through the province for the World Cup,” Goodridge said.
Toronto’s top doctor said the pilot will help determine the value of wastewater surveillance for future large-scale events in the city.
© 2025 The Canadian Press
SEATTLE – Blue Jays designated hitter George Springer left Game 5 of the American League Championship Series due to a right knee injury.
Springer was hit by a 95-m.p.h. pitch thrown by reliever Bryan Woo in the seventh inning of Friday’s game at T-Mobile Park. Toronto led 2-1 at the time.
Springer was replaced in the lineup by Joey Loperfido, who was added to the 26-man roster on Thursday after outfielder Anthony Santander was ruled out with a back injury.
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Springer was hit in the side of the knee and immediately crumpled to the ground in the batter’s box. A team trainer, joined by manager John Schneider, came out of the dugout for assistance.
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The 36-year-old Springer got to his feet and tested the leg by slowly walking to first base before deciding to leave the game.
Springer, who drove in Toronto’s first run of the game in the fifth inning, is hitting .256 in the post-season with three homers and six RBIs. He hit .309 in the regular season with 32 homers and 84 RBIs.
Following the game Jays manager John Schneider said X-rays were negative on Springer’s knee.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 17, 2025.
© 2025 The Canadian Press
SEATTLE – The Seattle Mariners are one win away from a berth in the 2025 World Series.
The Mariners scored five runs in the eighth inning to defeat the Toronto Blue Jays 6-2 on Friday night at T-Mobile Park to take a 3-2 lead in the best-of-seven American League Championship Series.
With the Jays leading 2-1 heading into the home half of the eighth inning, Seattle star Cal Raleigh tied the game with a solo home run off reliever Brendon Little to tie the game 2-2.
Then with the bases loaded Eugenio Suarez hit his second homer of the night off reliever Seranthony Dominguez to give the Mariners a 6-2 lead.
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Ernie Clement’s RBI single in the sixth inning off Mariners’ reliever Bryan Woo scored Alejandro Kirk from second base to snap a 1-1 tie and give the Jays a 2-1 lead. Kirk led off the inning with a double.
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Suarez hit a second-inning solo home run off Blue Jays’ starter Kevin Gausman to give the Mariners an early 1-0 lead.
The Jays load the bases in top of fourth with none out — Nathan Lukes hit a double, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. was intentionally walked, and Kirk walked. But Daulton Varsho struck out and Clement grounded into a double play to end the inning.
George Springer’s long double off Mariners’ reliever Matt Brash of Kingston, Ont., scored Addison Barger in the top of fifth to tie the game 1-1.
Mariners starter Bryce Miller worked four innings of four-hit ball, giving up one run and two walks. He had four strikeouts.
Kevin Gausman worked 5 2/3 innings, gave up three hits, one run, three walks and had four strikeouts. Louis Varland worked 1 1/3 innings of no-hit ball, before Little and Dominguez collectively gave up two hits and five runs.
Mariners starter Bryce Miller worked four innings of four-hit ball, giving up one run and two walks. He had four strikeouts.
Game 6 is Sunday night at Rogers Centre in Toronto. Right-handed rookie Trey Yesavage will start for the Jays, while the Mariners haven’t named a starter yet.
© 2025 The Canadian Press
The Canada Border Services Agency said Friday it had resolved the third outage in less than a month affecting some airport traveller inspection kiosks, after the head of the agency called the repeated equipment failures “not acceptable.”
The CBSA said the outage affecting inspection kiosks at Toronto Pearson International Airport, Calgary International Airport and Edmonton International Airport was resolved around 3 p.m. eastern time, six hours after it was first reported.
An agency spokesperson told Global News that kiosks were also impacted at Toronto’s Billy Bishop International Airport and Ottawa International Airport, but those systems were brought back online earlier Friday.
“This failure was caused by an unexpected technical issue during maintenance work,” the spokesperson said in an email. “It was not the result of any cyberattack.
“We thank travellers for their cooperation and apologize for any inconvenience experienced.”
Earlier Friday, CBSA president Erin O’Gorman said the agency works with its partners “relentlessly” to prevent outages and has contingency plans in place.
“It’s not acceptable that they go down, and we are working with our partners to make sure they don’t go down — and when they do, that we are ready to put them back up again,” she told reporters at a border security announcement in Niagara Falls, Ont.
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Friday’s outage came after a similar failure on Oct. 2 that affected Toronto Pearson as well as Montreal Trudeau International Airport, Ottawa International Airport and Calgary International Airport for about three hours.
That outage came days after kiosks went offline due to what CBSA called “unforeseen technical problems during routine systems maintenance” on Sept. 28.
The agency has said the recent outages also affected commercial processing at some land border crossings.
Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree said Friday he has tasked O’Gorman to report back to him within 30 days on “some of the challenges that we have been facing recently,” but added that agency staff are tasked to ensure outages are resolved quickly.
“I can assure Canadians that our systems work, our systems work effectively,” the minister said.
“Of course, there may be at times some outages and as soon as we find out, we make every effort to fix it in an expedited timeline.”
During the outages, international arrivals at affected airports have been rerouted to in-person customs inspection booths, leading to delays for travellers.
“Safety and security standards are upheld at all times, with border services officers working to verify travellers’ identities, receive their declarations, and conduct any additional screening warranted by each traveller’s individual circumstances,” the agency told Global News.
“The CBSA works closely with airport management to expedite traveller processing, minimize delays and complete verifications as required.”
Manual processing was also enacted for commercial traffic at land border crossings, leading to delays for vehicles that persisted for days after the outages were resolved.
The CBSA said at the time that it was working with Shared Services Canada, the Crown agency that provides IT services across government, to reduce the risk of future outages.
© 2025 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
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