/ Town Hall
Saturday, 20th June 2020
CALVIÀ WILL MONITOR THE PRESENCE OF REMAINS OF GENETIC MATERIAL FROM THE SARS-COV-2 VIRUS IN ITS WASTEWATER
• The Calvià Town Hall, through Calvià 2000 in collaboration with Hidrobal, begins a pilot plan that will detect possible outbreaks in order to monitor the situation
• The implementation of this solution, scheduled for next week, offers a vision of a safe Calvià for both its residents and its visitors
The Calvià Town Hall, through the public company Calvià 2000 in collaboration with Hidrobal, starts a pilot plan next week to detect the remains of genetic material from the SARS-CoV-2 virus in the wastewater that is treated in the treatment plants of the municipality, which will allow to assess possible outbreaks or outbreak areas and to carry out a closer monitoring of the population at risk and of the groups of interest. Thus, Calvià becomes the first municipality in the Balearic Islands to study the presence of genetic material in its sanitation system.
With this action, Calvià is positioned as a safe destination while allowing more health guarantees for its citizens.
Four sampling points located at the head of the treatment plants that treat wastewater from Calvià have been chosen, where two weekly samples will be analysed for one month. Once the representative samples have been collected and analysed in a laboratory, the results will be automatically transferred to the Covid-19 City Sentinel digital platform. This tool will allow graphical visualisation of data, through a dynamic map of the municipality with a sectorisation by areas of influence that will facilitate tracing the origin of the genetic remains of SARS-CoV-2. In addition, it will serve as the sole observatory of aggregate information combining analytical results with the health evolution indicators in the municipality.
The Agbar laboratories, responsible for carrying out the analyzes, have been collaborating actively in epidemiological surveillance and virus detection in wastewater for more than 20 years. Together with the University of Barcelona, it leads the international REVEAL project for the characterisation of SARS-CoV-2 in surface water, wastewater and sewage sludge.
