Four towns in Tipperary will have their wastewater sampled in a new National SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) Wastewater Surveillance Programme, that has been developed by a specialist team involving with input from the Health Protection Surveillance Centre, the HSE, the National Virus Reference Laboratory (NVRL), UCD School of Biomolecular and Biomedical Science, and Irish Water.
The surveillance will begin in early May at locations in Clonmel, Nenagh, Thurles and Roscrea. In total 68 locations across Ireland will be included. This wastewater surveillance programme will be an important part of the work being undertaken to monitor the prevalence of COVID-19 in communities across Ireland. The programme will measure the level of SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater will effectively operate as an early warning system for future possible waves of COVID-19 infection.
Results of this important programme will be reported by the project team and communicated by the HSE Health Protection Surveillance Centre to key organisations including the HSE Public Health Departments, the Irish Epidemiological Modelling Advisory Group, and the National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET).
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