NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Spain’s largest cities are using GoAigua technology to test their population for COVID-19 spread. These cities have implemented a widespread surveillance system that is efficiently testing entire cities every day, at a neighborhood and building level, by detecting the virus in sewer systems.
Spain was one of the first countries to be hard hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. Right behind Italy, Spain hit a record high of 100,000 cases in March 2020, and had to lock down its population for nearly two months. Today, with over 300,000 cases reported and reopening underway, it remains one of the top 15 nations of reported cases globally.
With the help of GoAigua, more than 20 cities with a combined population of almost 10 million people implemented a detailed sampling plan that includes collecting samples from manholes every other day at specific times and locations. This data is then integrated into GoAigua’s analytics software, where it is combined with demographic, socioeconomic, health, and water-consumption data in real time. Thanks to this revolutionary tool, health officials are getting a near-real-time picture of how the virus is spreading in the cities’ neighborhoods. They are able to anticipate official data up to a week in advance, take granular action proactively, and save millions of Euros in PCR testing for the population as they direct testing to the most affected areas.
As an example, the City of Valencia, Spain’s third largest city with a population of approximately 1.5 million, is using GoAigua’s analytics solution to continuously monitor the concentration of coronavirus per liter water, which in combination with other parameters can be normalized to predict the prevalence of the virus in each neighborhood. The solution also provides information about nursing homes, available hospital beds, and average income, which is of great help to the city’s health officials as they make resource decisions on a daily and weekly basis. See more about the work in Valencia [https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-europe-53587722/coronavirus-tracking-new-outbreaks-in-the-sewers]
“The GoAigua COVID-19 surveillance solution is having widespread success in detecting, containing, and focusing resources to combat the spread of the coronavirus,” said Pablo Calabuig, CEO of GoAigua US. “This holistic program is the convergence of epidemiology, hydraulics, and economic resources. We are delighted to contribute to the worldwide focus on combating this pandemic.”
GoAigua is starting to implement the COVID-19 monitoring system in the US. The solution promises to save millions of dollars in health department resources, and help cities and universities reopen safely. For more information on GoAigua’s COVID-19 surveillance solution, visit [https://www.idrica.com/case-studies/goaigua-sars-analytics-early-warning-system-detection-covid-19/].
