Western Australia’s COVID-19 wastewater pilot program is set to begin testing samples for the virus this week.
The pilot program will consist of two distinct projects, the first of which will be to test the historical samples collected by the Water Corporation.
The second project is to test prospective samples from quarantine hotels, in which the sampling can be matched to the times when known cases have been staying in the hotels.
Health Minister Roger Cook has denied the program had been delayed.
“The wastewater project team has done excellent work to get the testing program underway in the past month,” Mr Cook said.
“It has always been on schedule, with testing starting this week. This start date is completely in line with what was expected when I announced the new initiative last month.”
“Nothing has changed at all. Any suggestion that there has been a delay is plainly wrong and mischievous.”
Not excusing the pun, the Health minister said “it is a waste of everyone’s time to make such claims”.
He said wastewater testing was another layer of reassurance in WA’s pandemic control measures.
The first samples will be tested by government laboratory, PathWest.
The first samples being tested have been collected by the Water Corporation from metropolitan wastewater treatment plants since April this year.
The program’s steering committee has also commenced working with the various quarantine hotels to discuss site selection and the sampling methodology. Â
“We have been well prepared for potential COVID outbreaks for many months now,” said Mr Cook.
“It is why WA has been the safest place in Australia with no community transmission for more than six months.
“It is also why our expertise has been used extensively interstate, particularly in Victoria during the height of their crisis there, from top-level strategy to contact tracing and caring for COVID-19 positive residents in nursing homes.”
