The monitoring of wastewater in Ile-de-France by the Obépine network (see below) shows an increase in the presence of the English variant of Covid-19 in wastewater in Ile-de-France. “Today, we have reached 50% of the English variant over the whole of the Ile-de-France region, with no notable difference depending on the area”, indicates, this Wednesday, March 3, the observatory at France Bleu Paris.
Laurent Moulin, Research and Development manager at the Eau de Paris laboratory, specifies that 50% of the British variant in wastewater does not mean that one inhabitant in 2 is affected by this variant. But that gives “a trend, an idea of the evolution of the epidemic. In view of our analyzes, we know that the contamination figures will not decrease in the coming days”.
Real-time monitoring possible
Wastewater monitoring is useful because it alerts on the increase in the circulation of the virus 7 days in advance. Since Monday January 25, the network Obépine (Epidemiological Observatory in Wastewater) provides access, on his website, to indicators of the circulation of covid-19 in around thirty wastewater treatment plants, out of the 150 that are monitored on national territory. Wastewater partly reflects the state of health of the population and is a leading indicator of the stage of the epidemic. This is what prompted the National Academy of Medicine to recommend, as early as last July, that virological monitoring of wastewater be set up in all wastewater treatment plants.
Thanks to this detection of the virus in near real time of its circulation, data from the Obépine network makes it possible to follow the evolution of the epidemic early in relation to tests and hospitalizations, which allows to get ahead. on the opening of the number of intensive care beds. So the current trend seems to be down in the North and East of France, while in Lyon or Toulouse, the trend has been on the rise since the Holidays.
“The advantage is that we can analyze a large population with a single PCR test”, explains Yvon Maday, mathematician at the Sorbonne, involved in the Obépine network. Other interest: even people without symptoms can be detected thanks to the viral load present in the stool.
Assess the impact of curfews or local confinements
To date, 158 wastewater treatment plants have been selected in order to obtain a territorial network making it possible to form a “sentinel network”. THEhe research has shown that viral load is detectable in sewage water with high sensitivity. Wastewater analysis is a very early detection tool. “The monitoring carried out since March 5, in particular at wastewater treatment plants in Ile-de-France, has both confirmed the predictive nature of this viral genome measurement in wastewater – in particular at the occasion of the second wave – and the interest of this new indicator to assess the impact of certain measures, such as the first confinement or the curfew “, one emphasizes at the Ministry of Higher Education, Research and Innovation.
Am I at risk of contracting the coronavirus from drinking tap water?
Last April, microtraces of coronavirus had been found in non-drinking water in Paris. These “tiny traces” of Covid-19 had been found at 4 of the 27 collection points of the non-drinking water network in Paris, following the test carried out by the laboratory of the municipal water authority in Paris. This water is not the water we drink or the water we wash with. It’s not even the one that feeds your toilet! It is water that is only used “watering the gardens, cleaning the streets, supplying the fountains in the parks” specified the town hall of Paris to the Parisian.
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- Hand washing: the first weapon against Covid-19
