Wastewater montoring - Sage17 Nov 2021 12:28
Forgive me if this was posted when it first came out but at the end of 2020 a white paper was published entitled - Wastewater COVID-19 Monitoring in the UK: Summary for SAGE – 19/11/20.
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/940919/S0908_Wastewater_C19_monitoring_SAGE.pdf
If anyone doubted whether or not the UK Gov were looking into automated real-time monitoring here is section 5/6
5.2 Technology development
The development of an automated and on-site technology for sampling, processing and analysis of SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater is underway. A workshop with key academic and industry partners led to the identification of three key areas for development focused on (i) the automation of analysis in the field to enable detection and/or quantification of SARS-CoV-2 RNA near to the point of sampling, (ii) the development of ‘real time’ automated detection and/or quantification of SARS-CoV-2 RNA at the point of sampling, (iii) the development of technology that could be integrated into the network for wider health monitoring, for example at pumping stations.
6 Summary
The detection of SARS-CoV-2 viral RNA in wastewater has rapidly become a significant tool to address the ongoing pandemic. The scientific and epidemiological insights that can be derived from the wastewater data are dependent on the acuity and extent of the sampling, laboratory analyses and the level of environmental determinism and stochasticity driving variability in the measured signal. The UK Wastewater Surveillance Programmes across England, Scotland and Wales have been actively monitoring wastewater since early summer 2020, building up an evidence base that has provided knowledge and support to the wider efforts for managing the pandemic. Wastewater surveillance is a reliable, timely and cost-effective method to serve the needs of public health. Wastewater based epidemiology in the UK has a long and notable history, dating back to the identification, by John Snow, of wastewater as the source of cholera outbreaks in the mid-19th Century. The current work presented here anticipates the use of wastewater to track disease at scale as a proactive measure to ensure public health resilience beyond this pandemic.
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