by Katrina Goldsmith
Scottish Water has been helping fight the pandemic in its own way by monitoring wastewater around Scotland.
Testing the wastewater is fundamental in locating and identifying COVID spikes and outbreaks within the regions of Scotland. Scottish Water sample officers drive out around Scotland weekly to deliver the water samples to a testing facility run by SEPA (Scottish Environment Protection Agency. Labs examine the water looking for fragments of COVID-19 in ribonucleic acid (RNA), a method which has been developed by the Roslin Institute scientists in Edinburgh.
RNA is produced by the body; it is an important biological macromolecule that functions to convert the genetic information of DNA into proteins.
Wastewater fragments are not infectious and that there is zero evidence to suggest that individuals can contract Covid through wastewater. This testing provides useful data to track covid through Scottish regions and maintain control over the virus to prevent any more future lockdowns. Monitoring the water has allowed scientists to use the data to not only maintain control of where the virus is but also put the data towards COVID vaccines.
Luke Thomson, a Scottish Water sampling officer said: “Samples are collected all over Scotland from multiple teams. Every major then or village gets sampled, such as the central belt of Scotland, Langholm, and up in the Isles of Orkney”.
“Samples from influent wastewater is a reliable way of tracking where coronavirus is due to people not knowing whether they have covid as they aren’t showing symptoms or are not taking tests.”
“It can’t always be clear where COVID-19 is most abundant. Since covid leaves trace in human waste, it is an effective method of COVID pinpointing potential local spikes, which has majorly assisted the Scottish Governments in providing data on COVID cases in Scotland”.
As of the 11th of October 2022, there have been a total of 200,564 total cases registered in the City of Edinburgh alone since the beginning of the pandemic in 2020. 356 cases of positive PCR tests have been recorded in the last week for Edinburgh, that’s an average of 50.86% of Daily positive cases over the last 7 days.
The Scottish Government has extended the contract to investigate COVID-19 in the water system until April 2023.