Announcements
COVID-19 wastewater testing program
Have you participated in a COVID-19 wastewater testing program at some point during the past 19 months? If so, we want to hear from you! Please share your experiences in an anonymous online survey: https://redcap.iths.org/surveys/?s=LMNR7MFTMF7EHM89
This survey—part of a research collaboration between the University of Washington and PATH—is designed to gather lessons learned from the implementation of SARS-CoV-2 wastewater (or environmental) surveillance activities around the world. Your participation in the survey is voluntary and will provide insight into global challenges and opportunities of SARS-CoV-2 wastewater surveillance interventions. All responses will be kept private and any results shared outside the immediate study team will be aggregated and anonymized.
Please reach out to Anna Mehrotra (amehrotra@wef.org) if you have any questions. Thank you for your participation!
Request for Proposals Released for Automatic Sampler Supply, Training, and Troubleshooting for Small Utilities
As part of our Cooperative Agreement with the CDC , WEF will be providing autosamplers at no cost to at least 225 small utilities, including those in rural and tribal regions. During the current COVID-19 pandemic, wastewater-based disease surveillance has emerged as a tool for understanding COVID-19 infection trends in communities independent of healthcare-seeking behavior and clinical testing resources. Participation in wastewater surveillance to date, however, has skewed toward larger, well-resourced utilities. By providing new autosamplers to small utilities, this project aims to increase participation in wastewater surveillance by smaller, rural, and tribal communities and, therefore, expand access to this effective public health surveillance tool.
As a first step toward implementation of this program, WEF is seeking proposals from contractors for the provision of autosampler packages, and training and troubleshooting related to their use. Please see the Request for Proposals for details. Proposals are due Wednesday, December 29, 2021 at 5:00 PM EST.