French wastewater Covid monitoring system good for all variants claims its developers

Veolia, along with academic and business partners, has reported its method for detecting Covid in wastewater as effective for all variants of the virus. Monitoring viral material in wastewater has been shown to provide early indications of infection at regional levels.

The Vigie Covid-19 system launched in September 2020. Since then, Veolia claimed, it has been deployed for all Covid virus variants up to the Delta and was demonstrated as effective for the Omicron variant after trials in December 2021 on a dozen municipal and industrial sites across Europe.

In France, the government-appointed National Reference Laboratory has recently launched a process to harmonise its use to complement existing clinical data according to Veolia. Veolia Technological and Scientific Expertise Director, Philippe Sébérac, said: “With the success of our third campaign that demonstrates the effectiveness of Vigie Covid-19, we are now ready, in agreement with our partners, to make it available to a greater number of stakeholders.”