Observe Corona – Rauch wants wastewater monitoring as “watchtowers”

The minister emphasized that it costs about two million euros per year. Even with the end of the pandemic, these expenses are justified: “It is and remains an important safety net for us.” Before the start of the year, 24 sewage treatment plants were in operation. According to Rauch, there will be no limit values ​​for a possible resumption of corona measures: “But we want to know what developments are going on and whether there are new virus variants.”

Also good for observing changes
This was also emphasized by Herbert Oberacher, scientific director of the project at the Institute of Forensic Medicine at the Medical University of Innsbruck. “In our labs, we look at total exposure as well as mutations and changes,” he said. The resulting results and reports would then ultimately be passed on to corona commissions and remain visible on state and federal dashboards, Oberacher explains.

In any case, Innsbruck has been pioneering since the first half of 2020, emphasized Martin Steinlechner, interim director of the Institute of Forensic Medicine at the Medical University of Innsbruck. Even then, SARS-CoV-2 could be detected in wastewater, and methods have since been refined significantly. “We now employ 70 people,” he stressed. In any case, it is a “success story”, agrees Christine Bandtlow, Vice Rector for Research and International Affairs at the Medical University of Innsbruck.

Wastewater is supplied from sewage treatment plants
Finally, Oberacher and Steinlechner demonstrated the methodology themselves during a tour of the laboratories. “The starting point is the wastewater from the sewage treatment plants, which enters us in cooled sample boxes in half-litre containers,” Oberacher explains to journalists. This would then result in “a few 100 microliters” after multiple processes in which a “PCR reaction” was performed. According to Steinlechner, the samples were assessed quickly: “We can do 36 samples in ten minutes.”