The City of Calp has agreed with GAMASER, the laboratory of Global Omnium (to which Aguas de Calpe belongs), to carry out a series of effluent samples in order to enable the introduction of an epidemiological monitoring method through the analysis of wastewater. The aim is to determine the presence, concentration and evolution of genomic SARS-CoV-2 units in the effluents causing COVID-19 disease.
Initially, over the next 15 days, samples will be taken at key points in the wastewater network. This initiative will not cost the City Council, as Global Omnium, which is helping to stop the pandemic, will pay for the project.
Calp City Council and Global Omnium are committed to working closely together to join forces in the fight against COVID 19. To this end, the results will be shared and made available to the health authorities as needed.
The analyses will be carried out using SARS-GOAnalytics, a breakthrough method - validated by IATA-CSIC (Centro Superior de Investigaciones Científicas) - that is capable of quantitatively determining the number of genomic units of the virus causing COVID 19 per litre of water, thus establishing the epidemic curve after data collection and analysis.
Its methodology will make it possible to anticipate some of the indicators used and to compare the data with others collected by the Ministry of Health in order to add up information and obtain a more perfect picture of the progression or decline of the pandemic.
By taking samples and analysing waste water, we can have an "early warning system that allows us to divide and control the level of detail into sections that will indicate the emergence of new COVID hotspots in our cities in real time," Global Omnium declared
The coronavirus leaves a genetic trace (RNA) that remains in the body of the infected person for 20 days: "This RNA is excreted through faeces and other secretion methods, so that it is released into the sewerage system from the first day of infection, even if the patient does not even have symptoms or knows he is infected, i.e. he is asymptomatic".
Therefore, thanks to the system developed by Gamaser (Global Omnium) and verified by CSIC, we can "observe at a general level -dars entries- how the pandemic behaves where it spreads to population areas, and what is particularly relevant at this time: we can classify and control at the level of small populations or even at the level of neighbourhoods," he said.
Das Coronavirus hinterlässt eine genetische Spur (RNA), die 20 Tage lang im Körper der Infizierten verbleibt: "Diese RNA wird durch Fäkalien und andere Sekretionsmethoden ausgeschieden, so dass sie vom ersten Tag der Infektion an in die Kanalisation gelangt, auch wenn der Patient noch nicht einmal Symptome hat oder weiß, dass er infiziert ist, d.h. er ist asymptomatisch".
Daher können wir dank des von Gamaser (Global Omnium) entwickelten und vom CSIC verifizierten Systems "auf einer allgemeinen Ebene -Dars-Einträge- beobachten, wie sich die Pandemie dort verhält, wo sie sich auf Bevölkerungsgebiete ausbreitet, und was zu diesem Zeitpunkt besonders relevant ist: Wir können auf der Ebene kleiner Bevölkerungsgruppen oder sogar auf der Ebene von Stadtvierteln einteilen und kontrollieren".