Covid: Isle of Man sewage testing to give early warning of spread

Wastewater in the island's sewage system is being tested for viruses

Testing of the Isle of Man's waste water for viruses like Covid could act as an "early warning system", the director of public health has said.

Initial results from a pilot project monitoring the presence of diseases in sewage have been published in a weekly Covid surveillance report.

Dr Henrietta Ewart said the data was a "general guide" about infection levels across the population.

The report also showed five more people died with Covid in April.

It takes the total number of people who have died with the virus on the island since the start of the pandemic to 98.

The six-month trial of waste water testing began in March ahead of the scrapping of all legal testing and isolation rules on 1 April.

As the reporting of positive lateral flow test results is now voluntary, those figures were "likely to be an underestimate" of viral spread, the surveillance report said.

'Good intelligence'

The first batch of results from the waste water project, which is being run in partnership with the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, cover a five-week period between 6 March and 6 April.

They show a rise in the presence of Covid followed by a fall, which "mirrors levels from lateral flow test reporting" during that time, Dr Ewart said.

Samples are taken four times a week at the island's central sewage treatment works at Meary Veg in Santon and transported to the London centre, where testing for diseases like influenza and norovirus is also carried out.

Dr Ewart said the approach could provide early warnings about viral spread, but warned it was still an "emerging science", with the accuracy of the results under review.

However, she said it would provide "very good intelligence that we can actually act on in terms of public health messaging".