Halle/Magdeburg (dpa/sa) – Saxony-Anhalt is significantly expanding its pilot project for corona virus screening. From autumn, samples will be taken regularly from the wastewater in twelve instead of four representative sewage treatment plants in the state and examined in the laboratory for Sars-CoV-2, as Environment Minister Armin Willingmann (SPD) said in Halle on Monday. The state made around 300,000 euros available for the project at the State Office for Environmental Protection (Halle).
Regular examinations of the wastewater for corona viruses are “a kind of early warning system” for a “certain prediction” of the infection process. This has been shown by the results of the pilot project so far. Wastewater analyzes are a good additional way of estimating the development of incidences; especially since fewer people are currently being tested for the virus. “But everyone continues to produce wastewater and flush it away,” said the minister.
However, Willingmann emphasized that the wastewater screening in the sewage treatment plants will not be able to completely replace the clinical tests. By that he meant, for example, the rapid tests and PCR tests.
Saxony-Anhalt started the pilot project in the four sewage treatment plants in March 2021. There are currently around 20 such screening projects nationwide. According to the information, viruses are excreted, for example, via the human stool. These got into the waste water via the toilet and are disposed of in a sewage treatment plant. “In the end they are no longer there,” said the President of the State Office for Environmental Protection, Sandra Hagel. The treated wastewater is free of viruses such as Corona.
