SAMRC launches new interactive public dashboard to share information on levels of SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater
Cape Town | The South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC) has launched a new SARS-CoV-2 Wastewater Surveillance Dashboard. The Dashboard is part of a wastewater-based early warning system for COVID-19 on which information about levels of SARS-CoV-2 RNA will be shared with the public and public health decision makers, based on data from more than 70 wastewater treatment plants across four provinces in the country.
The Dashboard provides the public and health stakeholders with a centralized, online location from which to obtain up-to-date information on levels of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in wastewater in parts of the Eastern Cape, Gauteng, Limpopo, and the Western Cape.
According to Dr Mongezi Mdhluli, Chief Research Operations Officer at the SAMRC, the launch of this dashboard is an extension of interventions developed by the organisation to support systems within the country to manage the COVID-19 pandemic. “The new, interactive SAMRC wastewater surveillance dashboard will provide relevant provinces, local authorities and health departments with a further source of intelligence to inform decisions and interventions to prepare for, and manage COVID-19”, said Dr Mdhluli. He added that they are hoping that through this resource, the relevant public health authorities will be able to use the results to mount timeous interventions such as increased testing and tracing to reduce community spread of COVID-19.
Wastewater surveillance for SARS-CoV-2 is being implemented in many parts of the world as a cost-effective and reliable tool for tracking the spread of COVID-19 and serves as a powerful platform for a COVID-19 Early Warning System within wastewater catchment areas.
The SAMRC initiated its wastewater surveillance programme shortly after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic – the oraganisation brought together five of its research units including the Environment and Health Research Unit, Biomedical Research and Innovation Platform, Tuberculosis Platform, Genomics Centre and the Biostatistics Unit, to design and coordinate the programme. International advisors and external academic partners including the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in the USA, and the Swiss State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation were also brought on board to meet the SAMRC’s goal of rapidly establishing the project in multiple provinces across the country. By November last year, the team had already completed laboratory and field proof of concept studies and started embarking on the full implementation of the longer-term surveillance system in high risk settings.
Dr Renée Street, Coordinator of the SAMRC Wastewater Surveillance and Research Programme, said that following input from various public health stakeholders on their needs, the new SAMRC Dashboard will provide information on levels of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in local sewer catchment areas in formats and time frames that will best meet the needs of COVID-19 decision-makers. “The public and COVID-19 decision makers are invited to regularly visit the SAMRC Dashboard at https://www.samrc.ac.za/wbe/ to view the latest information on SARS-CoV-2 levels in wastewater”, she said.
Dr Rabia Johnson from BRIP, emphasized that as an organisation committed to development of the next generation of scientists, capacity development is a key element of the project – students and staff from partner institutions are being trained on laboratory methods, with the focus being on Under-Resourced Institutions. “We work closely with our four partner laboratories, the University of Venda, Sefako Makgatho Health Sciences University, the University of Fort Hare and Nelson Mandela University, to build capacity and ensure robust quality management”, said Johnson.
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