In a recommendation adopted on Wednesday 17 March, the European Commission urges Member States to set up a national wastewater monitoring system to track the SARS-CoV-2 virus and its variants as soon as possible, and by 1 October 2021 at the latest, and to send the data it collects without delay to the competent health authorities and to a European exchange platform that the Commission plans to set up.
The aim of this recommendation is to tackle Covid-19 by establishing a common EU approach to wastewater monitoring.
The Commission sets out the requirements that need to be followed so that sampling and analysis methods are comparable and reliable, and so that the data collected can be used for decision-making purposes.
The monitoring system needs to cover a significant proportion of the population in each Member State, including, as a minimum, the waste water from cities with more than 150,000 inhabitants, preferably with a minimum sampling frequency of two samples per week. The minimum sampling frequency and geographical coverage should be adapted to the epidemiological situation.
The Commission will provide financial support for wastewater monitoring activities and systematic analysis of variants.
In a statement, Environment Commissioner Virginijus Sinkevičius said: “Using wastewater monitoring can be a fast, reliable and cost-effective source of information to help us tackle the virus”.
The recommendation can be found at: https://bit.ly/3lmXZxg (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)