From next weekend, Chinese residents will again be allowed to travel abroad despite the fact that China is currently facing a huge wave of Covid-19 infections.
As this confluence of events is worrying for authorities across the world, a number of countries – including the US, Japan, the UK and most recently France – are requiring negative tests from travellers coming from China.
Instead, Belgium is going to use a new technique to combat the possible spread of Covid-19 variants by testing the excrement and wastewater of airline passengers on direct flights coming from the country.
"What is happening today in China is dramatic. Many people there become seriously ill and die: that should worry us," Federal Health Minister Frank Vandenbroucke said during a press conference on Monday. "But what is happening in China does not immediately put us at great risk here and now, thanks to the fact that we have vaccinated en masse."
While testing people's excrement for Covid-19 variants may seem like a strange measure to take, several studies confirm that the virus can indeed be detected in faeces. Although these kinds of tests are a lot less practical than traditional PCR tests, they are said to be a lot more reliable.
The faeces of infected persons contain traces of the virus about two to five days before those people show symptoms. Australian science agency CSIRO tested wastewater samples from the toilets of 37 Australian government repatriation flights from Covid-19 hotspots, including India, France, the UK, South Africa, Canada and Germany.
The study found that wastewater from 24 of the 37 flights (65%) contained traces of the virus, even though all passengers tested negative for the virus 48 hours before departure.
"The advantage of those tests on wastewater is that you can test a large group of people without taking a sample from everyone individually. There can be a lot of virus in stool," Elke Wollants of the Rega-Institute in Leuven. "So the concentrations of Covid-19 variants in stool will be high enough to do analysis on that."
However, several elements can negatively affect the results, such as cross-contamination between two consecutive flights, or too many chemical components in toilets, said Wollants. "And that is a big disadvantage. If they add too many chemical components to disinfect, it could destroy a lot of information."
Thoughts? Let @Maajtee know.
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