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more than 100 sewage treatment plants follow the coronavirus closely

The evolution of the coronavirus pandemic goes through sewage. More than 100 sewage treatment plants have been participating in virus monitoring since February.

Wastewater monitoring is an effective tool for observing the viral load and the variants circulating within the population, the Federal Office of Public Health (OFSP) noted in a press release on Tuesday. It makes it possible to quickly deliver reliable data at large scale. With the decrease in screening activities, it is particularly relevant.

Until now, monitoring was carried out in six wastewater treatment plants. Since February, the network has expanded and now has more than 100 stations, which provide samples two to six times a week. They cover about 70% of the population and the main tourist sites. Any new variants can thus be quickly detected.

The data collected will be published from June 2022. Monitoring should continue in this form until the end of 2022. An extension until the end of 2023 is desired. It is currently under review.

Collaboration Eawag et EPF

Wastewater monitoring has been carried out since spring 2020 by the Swiss Federal Institute of Water Science and Technology (Eawag) and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL), in collaboration with that of Zurich (EPFZ). The FOPH funded the research project.

Other core elements of monitoring the epidemiological situation are the mandatory reporting system (number of cases, tests, positivity rate), the Sentinella reporting system, sampling within different population groups and variant surveillance virus by sequencing.

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