The Honourable Jean-Yves Duclos, the federal Health Minister, visited the McConnell Engineering Building on Monday, April 25 to tour the wastewater surveillance program.
Beginning in 2020 as a pilot project called , the effort to test wastewater for the SARS-COV-2 virus is led by McGill civil engineering professor Dominic Frigon, and is now funded by the and the . The project tests wastewater samples in Montreal, Laval, Quebec City and Gatineau to track the spread of the novel coronavirus as a cost-efficient complement to individual testing.
Following a tour of the facility, Duclos praised the McGill team
鈥淵our work is not only important now, but will continue in the short and longer term,鈥� Duclos said. 鈥淐OVID is not over, unfortunately. There鈥檒l almost certainly be other forms of the pandemic to come.鈥�
In a tweet posted on Monday evening, Duclos thanked Frigon and his team 鈥渇or the informative insight into wastewater surveillance and how data is interpreted to identify the spread of viruses and other diseases. This is lifesaving work.鈥�
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This article was originally published in the .
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