RIGA, July 20 (LETA) - In six Latvian cities - Riga, Jurmala, Rezekne, Jelgava, Valmiera and Liepaja - regular wastewater tests will be launched to determine the he extent of Covid-19 infections in the communities, Ilze Dimante, a spokeswoman for the Institute of Food Safety, Animal Health and Environment BIOR, informed LETA. 

Representatives of Valmieras Udens municipal water utility indicated that wastewater surveillance will allow to determine the concentration of the coronavirus in sewage and forecast possible Covid-19 outbreaks. The method is already in use in many other countries to measure the extend to infections in particular populations and to timely detect new mutations. 

Wastewater surveillance for the presence of the coronavirus is being used in many other European Union member states, including Finland and Estonia where the monitoring is conducted in 28 municipalities. Similar research is ongoing also in the Netherlands, Sweden, Spain and Germany. 

In accordance with the European Commission's recommendation, Latvia is introducing a  wastewater surveillance system to measure the amount of SARS-CoV-2 remnants in sewage, which can suggest of Covid-19 outbreaks in populated areas and help identify affected territories. 

Rita Technical University will be organizing and coordinating the collection of wastewater samples, which will be provided by employees of municipal waterworks. BIOR and the Latvian Biomedical Research and Study Centre will be coordinating the transportation and testing of the samples. The cities included in the wastewater surveillance program have been chosen in cooperation with the Health Ministry and the Center for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC).