Almost a year ago, the Bens wastewater treatment plant started a pioneering program in Spain to detect coronavirus in wastewater in the A Coruña area. Eleven months later, the researchers from the CovidBens team are not only able to predict the evolution of the virus thanks to the analysis of the viral load in the waters, but also this week they could begin to detect the variants present in the waters that arrive at the treatment plant.
It has been the European Union itself that has recently stressed the importance of developing early warning systems such as the one that has been operating in A Coruña for months. The objective is to get ahead of the waves, to be able to foresee when the contagions begin to rise. Objective that has been met in the case of CovidBens.
Right now, that early warning system is clearly on the rise, which could indicate an increase in infections in two weeks. The CovidBens team studies the possibility that this increase in viral load has to do with the variants of the coronavirus, which will be possible to discriminate this week.
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