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Press Coverage - Articles

•  WHO says Kraken ‘misses’ indicator for severe disease, NICD believes it could become dominant strain in SA, 12 January 2023 (Daily Maverick)
•  SAMRC cautions people with ill health to wear masks after spike in Covid-19 traces in Western Cape wastewater, 14 October 2022 (TimesLive)
•  Infection numbers declining in South Africa, 4 July 2022 (DW News)
•  Meet the scientists tracking Covid-19’s crappy future, 7 June 2022 (Mail & Guardian)
•  SA wastewater samples may show ‘upswing’ in Covid-19, 8 April 2022 (MoneyWeb)
•  Levels of Covid-19 in wastewater decline, 23 December 2021 (Business Day)
•  Medical research council detects drop in Covid-19 at wastewater plants, 23 December 2021 (Times Live)
•  Wastewater surveillance team warns of rapidly rising concentrations of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in rural areas, 19 December 2021 (IOL)
•  Coronavirus fragment counts surge in rural wastewater, research team finds, 17 December 2021 (Business Day)
•  Omicron variant prevalent in wastewater, says medical research scientists, 14 December 2021 (IOL)
•  No! Omicron is not in your tap water, 14 December 2021 (IOL)
•  Omicron detected in City’s wastewater, 11 December 2021 (IOL)
•  Covid-19: Traces of Omicron variant detected in Cape Town's wastewater, 10 December 2021 (News24)
•  Increase in SARS-CoV-2 RNA levels in wastewater, 20 November 2021 (Roodepoort record)
•  Increase in SARS-CoV-2 RNA levels in wastewater, 20 November 2021 (Lowvelder)
•  Increase in SARS-CoV-2 RNA levels in wastewater, 19 November 2021 (SA News)
•  Increase in SARS-CoV-2 RNA levels in wastewater, 19 November 2021 (South African Tribune)
•  Increase in SARS-CoV-2 RNA levels in wastewater, 19 November 2021 (South African Horizon)
•  Early signs of Covid-19 uptick in South Africa: researchers, 19 November 2021 (Business Tech)
•  First signs of rise in Covid-19 in South Africa: researchers, 19 November 2021 (The Bharat Express News)
•  Increase in SARS-CoV-2 RNA volatility in SA’s wastewater should be a warning, 20 November 2021 (The Citizen)
•  Rising concentrations of Covid-19 fragments found in Tshwane, Nelson Mandela Bay wastewater, 26 November 2021 (BizNews)
•  Rising concentrations of Covid-19 fragments found in Tshwane, Nelson Mandela Bay wastewater, 26 November 2021 (Gossip Lanka)
•  Covid rising rapidly in two major SA cities, council says, 27 November 2021 (Moneyweb)
•  Covid Rising Rapidly in Two Major S. Africa Cities, Council Says, 27 November 2021 (Bloomberg)
•  Covid-19: Traces of Delta variant discovered in Western Cape wastewater 'no longer infectious', 6 July 2021
•  Delta now dominant variant at Western Cape wastewater treatment plants, 6 July 2021
•  Delta variant detected in Western Cape wastewater, 6 July 2021
•  COVID-19: Traces of Delta Variant ‘dominant in Cape Town wastewater’, 6 July 2021
•  Gauteng sewage has shown high rates of Covid-19 for three weeks, 24 June 2021
•  SA Tests Sewage for COVID-19 Early Warning, 15 June 2021
•  #Covid19: Wastewater surveillance could help spot third wave, 7 June 2021
•  SA Medical Research Council launches tool to track Covid-19 in wastewater, 7 June 2021
•  How waste water is helping South Africa fight COVID-19, 24 May 2021
•  SU to implement a wastewater surveillance platform to detect COVID-19 outbreaks on campus, 20 May 2021
•  Wastewater surveillance could help spot a third Covid-19 wave, 20 April 2021
•  Water testing could detect Covid-19, 6 March 2021
•  Cape Town’s sewers offer clues to next Covid-19 wave, 10 March 2021
•  How WC health authorities use sewage to identify COVID cases in communities, 8 March 2021
•  Wastewater used to track Covid-19 faster than individual testing, The Citizen, 17 Nov 2020
•  Testing sewage: The Covid canary in our wastewater, Mail & Guardian, 4 Oct 2020

Interviews

 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Surveillance dashboard tracking levels of SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater, ChaiFM, 8 June 2021
 
•  Newzroom Afrika - The Pulse interview with Prof Angela Mathee, Environment & Health Research Unit, SAMRC, video, 19 November 2020

Publications

Nkambule, S., Johnson, R., Mathee, A., Mahlangeni, N., Webster, C., Horn, S., Mangwana, N., Dias, S., Sharma, J.R., Ramharack, P. and Louw, J., 2023. Wastewater-based SARS-CoV-2 airport surveillance: key trends at the Cape Town International Airport. Journal of Water and Health, 21(3), pp.402-408.

Mahlangeni, N., Street, R., Horn, S., Mathee, A., Mangwana, N., Dias, S., Sharma, J.R., Ramharack, P., Louw, J., Reddy, T. and Surujlal-Naicker, S., 2023. Using Wastewater Surveillance to Compare COVID-19 Outbreaks during the Easter Holidays over a 2-Year Period in Cape Town, South Africa. Viruses, 15(1), p.162.

Johnson, R., Mangwana, N., Sharma, J.R., Muller, C.J., Malemela, K., Mashau, F., Dias, S., Ramharack, P., Kinnear, C., Glanzmann, B. and Viraragavan, A., 2022. Delineating the Spread and Prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 Omicron Sublineages (BA. 1–BA. 5) and Deltacron Using Wastewater in the Western Cape, South Africa. The Journal of Infectious Diseases, 226(8), pp.1418-1427.

Street, R., Malema, S., Mahlangeni, N. and Mathee, A., 2020. Wastewater surveillance for Covid-19: An African perspective. Science of the Total Environment, 743: 140719

Johnson, R., Muller, C.J.F., Ghoor, S., Louw, J., Archer, E., Surujlal-Naicker, S., Berkowitz, N., Volschenk, M., Bröcker, L.H.L., Wolfaardt, G. and van der Walt, M., 2021. Qualitative and quantitative detection of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in untreated wastewater in Western Cape Province, South Africa. South African Medical Journal, 111 (3)

Street, R.A., Mathee, A., Johnson, R., Muller, C.J., Louw, J., Mdhluli, M., Gray, G.E. and Gelderblom, H.C., 2021. COVID-19 vaccine roll-out in South Africa: The added value of wastewater surveillance for SARS-CoV-2. South African Medical Journal, 111(6), pp.524-525.

Street, R., Mathee, A., Mangwana, N., Dias, S., Sharma, J.R., Ramharack, P., Louw, J., Reddy, T., Brocker, L., Surujlal-Naicker, S. and Berkowitz, N., 2021. Spatial and Temporal Trends of SARS-CoV-2 RNA from Wastewater Treatment Plants over 6 Weeks in Cape Town, South Africa. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 18(22), p.12085.

Johnson, R., Sharma, J.R., Ramharack, P., Mangwana, N., Kinnear, C., Viraragavan, A., Glanzmann, B., Louw, J., Abdelatif, N., Reddy, T. and Surujlal-Naicker, S., 2022. Tracking the circulating SARS-CoV-2 variant of concern in South Africa using wastewater-based epidemiology. Scientific Reports, 12(1), pp.1-12.

Disclaimer
Research reported on this dashboard was funded by the South African Medical Research Council with additional financial support received from the Solidarity Fund, the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation, UK Research and Innovation, and the Department of Science and Innovation. The content and findings reported/ illustrated, and the information provided is accurate to the best knowledge of the researchers, and do not necessarily reflect the official position and sentiments of the SAMRC or the Solidarity Fund, Michael & Susan Dell Foundation, UK Research and Innovation, and the Department of Science and Innovation. Every effort was made to ensure accuracy and reliability of the information.

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