COVID-19 CITY SENTINEL is a digital observatory for wastewater monitoring that will allow detecting possible virus outbreaks

The Calatayud City Council and Aquara, a company that manages the municipal water service in the city, have launched an early warning project that will allow detecting possible outbreaks of covid-19 through the monitoring of wastewater.

Covid-19 City Sentinel is an innovative wastewater monitoring solution to quantify the presence of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that combines an adapted sampling plan, rapid RT-qPCR analyzes, and access to a digital observatory.

Residual water is a determining factor for detecting possible outbreaks since, although the virus is not viable in them, it is detectable and quantifiable since its maximum concentration occurs in the excretions of carriers during the phase of incubation; both asymptomatic and those that later manifest the disease. In this way, having control points selected by epidemiological criteria allows detecting if the virus is present, as well as quantifying notable changes in the amount of viral material present in the wastewater, something that would indicate a possible regrowth or changes in evolution of contagions.

This project promoted by Suez in Spain, a group of companies to which Aquara belongs, has the collaboration of a group of experts, led by Dr. Albert Bosch, a specialist in aquatic virology attached to the University of Barcelona, ​​who guarantees the validation of the adapted sampling plans whose sample points and frequency will be adjusted according to population and epidemiological criteria. These points and sampling frequencies will be agreed with the city council, establishing critical and high-risk equipment, facilities and buildings as priorities, such as hospitals, health centers, residences, schools and, in general, high-occupancy buildings or facilities. In the case of Calatayud, an integrated sample will be taken at two points that collect most of the city's wastewater: A point in the left bank network before the crossing with the Jalón river, in the area of ​​the Margarita park and the green path and another point on the right bank of the Jalón.

The Covid-19 City Sentinel solution consists of sectorizing the sewerage of the municipality in which it is to be implemented in areas of influence that help to trace the origin of SARS-CoV-2 when it is detected. In turn, Labaqua laboratories, also belonging to Suez in Spain and specialized in the implementation of PCR techniques for environmental matrices, are capable of delivering reliable results in less than 48 hours using genetic markers of SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater, in which the virus can be detected and quantified.

Once representative samples have been collected and analyzed in the laboratory, the results are automatically transferred to a digital platform.

Through this tool, the Calatayud City Council will be able to graphically visualize the data, through a dynamic map of the city with a sectorization by areas of influence that facilitates tracing the origin of SARS-CoV-2.

In addition, it serves as a unique observatory of aggregate information combining analytical results with the indicators of health evolution of the municipality and will also allow the council to pay more attention to critical and high-risk facilities and buildings, such as hospital residences, health centers or unique buildings high occupancy.

The objective is to make the SARS-CoV-2 digital observatory in wastewater available to the Calatayud City Council to facilitate decision-making, combining Aquara's knowledge of advanced operation in networks and rapid pathogen detection techniques, with the data and experience of years in epidemiological surveillance. In this way, the city council of the capital will have all the information to assess possible outbreaks or foci of the epidemic, measure the needs of citizen care devices and carry out a closer monitoring of the population at risk.