Page 136 - A Widening Idea of Health and Health Research - The South African Medical Research Council from Creation to COVID

Stress Test: The MRC and the Covid-19 Pandemic, 2020–

of waste-water samples collected at 60 sites in four provinces for evidence of the
causative SARS-CoV-2 virus. As these provided early warning of likely outbreaks – up
to two weeks before clinical symptoms became manifest – they gave health authorities
a head start in identifying where to ramp up prevention and treatment efforts at once.
To publicize this information the MRC set up a waste-water surveillance dashboard.
Its Environment and Health Research Unit was proud, it said, to be participating in
what it called the ‘strongest demonstration of resilience and agility in the face of the
COVID-19 pandemic’.
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A senior laboratory assistant in the MRC-Fort Hare Microbial Water Quality Monitoring
Research Unit in Alice, Mrs N. Mazibuko, testing effluent for evidence of Covid-19 infection
in the community, 2020.

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