Uruguay Mvotma Pando Tender

This Thursday July 2 the minister Dra. Irene Moreira and the president of the Scientific and Technological Park of Pando PCTP Dr. Fernando Amestoy signed an agreement by which the National Water Directorate of Mvotma and the PCTP agree on a framework for action for the early determination of the presence of the SARS COV 2 virus in domestic effluents. Also present were the Undersecretary of Mvotma Tabare Hackenbruch the National Director of Water Arch. Viviana Pesce the UNESCO representative in Montevideo Miguel De Franca Doria technicians and professionals who carry out the project.The project has the support of the Government of Spain by donating laboratory equipment for the installation of the Regional Experimental Center for Sanitation Technologies CERTS and UNESCO which consolidated it as a Category 2 Center. This allows studies and research into alternative technologies for sanitation in addition to the studies to detect the presence of the COVID 19 virus in wastewater.The Minister stressed that these alternative systems are of utmost importance to solve problems especially outside Montevideo. It is known that Uruguay has difficulties in the interior to solve safe sanitation in small towns where unfortunately OSE has not been able to reach with a sewerage network he pointed out. The project has the participation of the academy through the Technological Pole and the Faculty of Chemistry providing physical space and human resources so that CERTS can carry out its tasks. OSE also plays an indispensable role for the best performance of the tasks of the Center and the Inter-American Development Bank IDB with its contribution to the realization of this project.As explained by the associate professor Eleuterio Umpirrez the objective is to increase the detection capacity of COVID 19 cases in the population by characterizing domestic effluents. The goal is to generate an early warning system with the understanding that if you have analysis samples of COVID 19 in advance you can obtain indices that would contribute to the early determination of COVID 19 even before it manifests itself in people. The genetic features of the virus exist up to 20 days before the infection appears so early detection is very important to know which population is carrying the virus even if it is asymptomatic.On the other hand the president of the PCTP Fernando Amestoy highlighted the collaborative work of the Institutions and the Academy and celebrated the power to make available the technology and infrastructure of the Technological Pole for this purpose.