South Africa makes COVID test breakthrough

摘要

South Africa's Water Research Commission (WRC) has successfully managed to pick up COVID-19 signals in drainage water from informal settlements. The move opens the door for a national COVID-19 wastewater surveillance programme that could include non-sewered communities, and provide a model for the rest of the continent. The WRC said its proof-of-concept study, which looked for COVID-19 ribonucleic acid (RNA) in samples from three rivers and one surface runoff from an informal settlement in Gauteng, was "the first of its kind in South Africa, and of high value for developing countries where many communities are not connected to formal sewer networks."