A PILOT programme to flag up early signs of coronavirus in communities in Wales by monitoring sewage systems, has been awarded almost £500,000.

Frequent monitoring of coronavirus levels at waste water treatment plants can offer a signal of the infection rate in the community, and provide an early sign of its presence.

The World Health Organization is clear there is currently no evidence that coronavirus has been transmitted via sewerage systems.

But the Welsh Government has awarded the funding to a consortium led by Bangor University, working with Cardiff University, Public Health Wales and Dwr Cymru Welsh Water.

They will develop a monitoring programme that can measure the presence of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in wastewater. The presence of SARS-CoV-2 in human waste is common in almost all confirmed coronavirus cases.

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The pilot programme will be funded for an initial six months and sampling will begin almost immediately in a small number of water treatment plants. This will expand rapidly to up to 20 treatment plants that cover approximately 75 per cent of the population in Wales.

Whilst monitoring for coronavirus, the systems set up will also be able to determine whether other types of respiratory viruses are also present, which will help public health monitoring.

“To halt the spread of the coronavirus we need to measure it within our communities and monitor changes," said health minister Vaughan Gething.

"This pilot programme will allow us to develop an early warning system to provide signals on the levels of coronavirus infections in the community. This will complement our wider public health programmes, including testing.

“The funding provides the opportunity to build upon existing strengths and partnerships that we have in Wales in environmental sciences, disease surveillance and pathogen genomics. I’m pleased to be working with partners from across Wales.”