Ong Ye Kung says Singapore can do Covid-19 tracing via wastewater sampling

Singapore — Health Minister and former trade negotiator Ong Ye Kung shared some details about wastewater sampling, an initiative that is geared towards Covid-19 surveillance.

Mr Ong explains that he and Gan Kim Yong, Singapore’s Minister for Trade and Industry, were at Beo Crescent earlier this Wednesday to find out more about the programme. Mr Ong adds that having resided in Beo Crescent for several years as a child, he was somewhat familiar with the area that is located in Bukit Merah.

To date, the National Environment Agency (NEA) has set up 200 sampling sites scattered around Singapore for surveillance of the Covid-19 virus.

In his post, Mr Ong explains that viral fragments can be detected in the excrement of a person who has been infected with Covid-19. Therefore, NEA collects the waste sample of residents in manholes and examines the samples. Through testing and sampling on a daily basis, it can detect if the virus is being spread to more residents in the area.

As such, it becomes easier to pinpoint possible transmission clusters earlier and more preventive action can be taken to minimize the spread of the Covid-19 virus in the community.

While this method does not allow researchers to identify an infected individual, it is useful as an early warning system and swab operations can be carried out earlier to tamp down on the number of cases.

At the end of his post, Mr Ong thanks those at NEA, NTU, NUS, and other organizations for taking part in the initiative and honing this surveillance capability that has had a massive impact on the spread of the virus.

NEA has also announced that it will develop its programme such that more than 400 sites will be set up in Singapore by next year.

You Zi Xuan is an intern at The Independent SG. /TISG