Manila Water Co. Inc. is constructing its first molecular laboratory for SARS-CoV-2 wastewater surveillance in a bid to further curb the impact of the virus to customers.
Joy De Vera, head of Manila Water’s laboratory services, said in a statement the facility is expected to expand the company’s capacity to detect the virus in its wastewater treatment systems and generate data for public health use.
De Vera said the facility, built in coordination with government partners and local government units will be ready to be fully operational by June.
“The project is part of the company’s COVID-19 response and is aimed to detect and quantify the SARS-COV-2 in wastewater using polymerase chain reaction machines that are efficient in amplifying small segments of DNA or RNA. These data will be complementary to the current clinical testing and reports of confirmed positive cases,” De Vera said.
Emmanuel Jimenez, Manila Water head of research and development, said the facility is equipped with wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) that can be a game changer in tracking local outbreaks of COVID-19.
“Data to be generated in this molecular lab can help communities formulate actions in mitigating COVID-19 in its early stages of emergence or re-emergence as WBE can detect the virus even before people show symptoms,” Jimenez said.
