A new study led by scientists with UW Medicine and the Washington Department of Health is hoping to get some answers on how COVID-19 has spread through the state. The study, dubbed the Washington Coronavirus Exposure Survey (WAVES), is statewide and aimed at getting a better sense of just how many people in Washington have been infected by the deadly virus, including those who may not know they were ever infected, and where those people live..
SU to implement a wastewater surveillance platform to detect Covid-19 outbreaks on campus
By IOL Reporter
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STELLENBOSCH University (SU) has announced that it plans to implement a wastewater-based surveillance platform to detect outbreaks of SARS-CoV-2 on two of its campuses.
This comes as the country battles a third wave of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The wastewater-based surveillance platform has been developed in collaboration with researchers from the University of Bath, in partnership with the South African Medical Research Council (MRC), and funded by the UK’s Newton Fund. The campus-based platform will be supported by a grant from Professor Eugene Cloete, the Vice-Rector: Research, Innovation and Postgraduate Studies.
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Author: Wiida Fourie-Basson
Published: 20/05/2021
Stellenbosch University (SU) plans to implement a wastewater-based surveillance platform to detect institutional SARS-CoV-2 outbreaks on two of its campuses.
“This flows from the institution s commitment to do everything realistically possible to protect the campus community , says Prof Gideon Wolfaardt, director of the Stellenbosch University Water Institute (SUWI) and professor in the Department of Microbiology.
The wastewater-based surveillance platform has been developed in collaboration with researchers from the University of Bath, in partnership with the South African Medical Research Council (MRC), and funded by the United Kingdom s Newton Fund. The campus-based platform will be supported by a grant from Prof Eugene Cloete, Vice-Rector: Research, Innovation and Postgraduate Studies.
‘Don’t panic’ about India Covid variant
6 May 2021
Christian devotees take part in a prayer mass at St. Joseph s Cathedral on the eve of Good Friday, in Allahabad on April 1, 2021. (Photo by SANJAY KANOJIA / AFP)
With the news of a new Covid-19 variant circulating in India possibly having made it through South African ports of entry, scientists say it is too soon for citizens to panic.
Although no cases of B.1.617 the variant blazing through India have been reported in South Africa, as stated by the National Institute for Communicable Diseases, specialists have started investigating it.
In its weekly epidemiology update, the World Health Organisation (WHO) reported that the B.1.617 was a variant of interest and might be responsible for the surge in Covid-19 cases in India.