Surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater - a pilot project
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FHI has initiated a pilot project to explore the added value of wastewater-based surveillance as a tool in the preparedness against SARS-CoV-2.
About the project
The project will be conducted in close collaboration with selected municipalities and the external laboratory Nemko Norlab over a period of ~ 6 months. In the first round wastewater samples will be collected from Tromso, Trondheim, Bergen, Oslo and Ullensaker/Gardermoen. The project will continuously assess the need of increasing or reducing the number of sampling sites.
As of December1 2022 the project will be extended with 4 months in a downscaled version. This period, samples will be collected from selected sites in Trondheim, Bergen, Oslo and Ullensaker/Gardemoen, a covering ~25% of the population in Norway. As of April 1 2023 the number of sites was further reduced from 5 to 3, to include areas in Oslo and Viken, covering ~22% of the population.
Through this project NIPH will gain experience about the cost-benefit of wastewater-based surveillance as a surveillance tool to strengthen preparedness against covid-19 and other infectious diseases. Results from the surveillance are published and regularly updated here:
By the end of the project period, NIPH will prepare a report which evaluates and summarizes the experiences of the wastewater surveillance. Results from the evaluation can be found here:
