SINGAPORE: At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Singapore began testing wastewater to trace the spread of the disease, mirroring efforts by other countries.
Dutch microbiologist Gertjan Medema. That such a method was even possible was due largely to the research done by a Dutch microbiologist, whose studies on wastewater revolutionised the way COVID-19 outbreaks were detected.
This allowed for public health interventions and policies that benefited millions of people worldwide. As COVID-19 emerged in early 2020, Prof Medema, a principal microbiologist at the Netherlands’ KWR Water Research Institute, and his team were the first to detect the presence of the Sars-CoV-2 virus in wastewater in the Netherlands, even before infections were officially reported in certain cities.
Compared to other detection methods such as nasal swabs, wastewater testing proved to be a cost-effective and non-invasive method for tracking the spread of COVID-19. It has been particularly valuable in areas with limited access to clinical testing or where asymptomatic transmission is a concern. Thanks to his research, Singapore's National Environment Agency’s Environmental Health Institute , national water agency PUB, Home Team Science and Technology Agency and other partners from local universities and research institutes implemented wastewater-based epidemiology processes as an early warning system for COVID-19 outbreaks at the start of the pandemic in 2020.
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