The second COVID-19 Engineering Lecture Series “Sewage Surveillance as an Early Warning Signal for Control of COVID-19 in Communities of Hong Kong” was conducted on February 25, 2021 by Professor Tong Zhang of Department of Civil Engineering. The talk was facilitated by Professor S.C. Wong Associate Dean (Development and External Relations).
During the lecture, Professor Zhang shared about the early detection and surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 is a key pre-requisite for effective control of COVID-19. Sewage testing has been increasingly employed as an alternative surveillance tool. However, sewage surveillance for SARS-CoV-2 is a rapidly evolving science, and there are no common practices and reference methods as not much valid data has been published about how this technology can be practically implemented and interpreted for public health actions. The team validated a testing method for quantifying SARS-CoV-2 in sewage using heat-inactivated SARS-CoV-2 virus and sample collected from a local hospital treating COVID-19 patients. Hundreds of sewage samples collected during the 3rd and 4th waves of COVID-19 in Hong Kong informed the trend of COVID-19 development in different catchment areas. Starting from December 28, 2020, the legal enforcement of compulsory testing triggered by sewage surveillance uncovered many hidden cases in the communities of Hong Kong and helped the control of COVID-19.
The next COVID-19 Engineering Lecture Series “Predicting COVID-19 Case Numbers from Government Policy Responses” will be conducted on April 28, 2021. Please stay tuned for further details.