Colds and corona infections are on the rise again. This is not only visible in doctors’ offices, but also in the sewage treatment plant in Aachen’s Soers district.
Colds and corona diseases are on the rise again. This is also evident in the sewage treatment plants in North Rhine-Westphalia. 13 of 17 sewage treatment plants that recently submitted data to the state center as part of the wastewater-based Covid monitoring had detected an increased coronavirus load in the wastewater.
The virus load was tested in plants in Dortmund, Düsseldorf, Bonn and Aachen. As of August 21, the virus levels in the sewage treatment plant in Aachen Soers rose by 36 percent.
As part of the AMELAG project (Wastewater Monitoring for Epidemiological Situation Assessment) funded by the Federal Ministry of Health (BMG), the wastewater in 21 sewage treatment plants in North Rhine-Westphalia has been regularly tested for SARS-CoV-2 for some time. These analyses are carried out twice a week using molecular biological methods.
The results of the project provide important insights into the spread of the virus in the population. However, the processed data shows that not all sewage treatment plants could always be included in the evaluation due to incomplete or missing measurements.
With the 21 sewage treatment plants examined, the project records the wastewater flows of a total of 33.9 percent of the inhabitants of North Rhine-Westphalia. This corresponds to around 6.15 million people.
The Vaccination Commission therefore continues to advise chronically ill people and people over 60 to have their vaccinations booster every year in order to avoid severe cases of the viral disease.
