NORTHERN TERRITORY
NT Health says Leanyer is one of 10 catchment sites in Greater Darwin (ABC News: Hamish Harty)
exclusively receives wastewater from the quarantine facility. How exactly does it work? Mr Boland and his team test the raw sewage that comes into the ponds. Positive results act as an early warning system, telling health authorities someone may have been in the community with COVID-19. To test the wastewater, Mr Boland’s crew put a 3D printed “shuttle” into the debris. Inside the shuttle, Mr Boland explains, is a negatively charged membrane that attracts coronavirus RNA. The shuttle usually collects information for between three and four days. During COVID-19 outbreaks (such as the recent Tanami cluster), it collected data over just 24 hours, allowing more frequent testing. When the time’s up, Mr Boland’s team pulls up the shuttle, bags it and refrigerates it before sending
The shuttle used to test wastewater for coronavirus in the NT is 3D printed (ABC News: Lauren Roberts)
the sample off to South Australia for scientific testing. The SA laboratory looks for certain markers which are unique to SARS-CoV-2 (the virus which causes COVID-19 disease) and reports what they find out to health authorities. Test results are returned in about 24 hours, Mr Boland explained, although it was quicker during the Tanami outbreak.
Wait, why send it to SA? Dr Pain said because the testing was very specialist, there wasn’t currently a team who could do it locally. However, through a program called the Collaboration on Sewage Surveillance of SARSCoV-2 (ColoSSoS Project), Dr Pain said the NT was able to call on interstate scientists. “It’s much better for us to be part
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