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The legacies of air travelers can provide valuable information about new virus variants
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In Austria, the waste water from all flights from China is to be examined for new corona virus variants from next week.
This was announced by the Ministry of Health on Tuesday.
The samples would be taken directly from the aircraft's waste water tanks.
In this way, new virus variants could be discovered with particular precision, it said.
In addition, the Hallstatt sewage treatment plant is to be included in federal wastewater monitoring.
The place in the Salzkammergut is a popular destination for Chinese tourists.
The sewage treatment plants in Vienna and Salzburg are already being analyzed in this regard, it said.
This means that the waste water in all places that are frequently visited by guests from China is regularly examined.
Mandatory corona tests for travelers from China, such as those introduced by the EU countries Italy, France and Spain, are still not planned in Austria.
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In view of the corona wave in China, Belgium also wants to test the wastewater from aircraft from the People’s Republic for new Covid 19 variants.
The government of the country announced this on Monday.
Belgium is also asking travelers from China to test themselves for Corona if they show symptoms upon arrival.
However, the government in Belgium will not prescribe this.
Health Minister Frank Vandenbroucke said that Europe-wide coordination was necessary.
At the end of last week, Canada announced that it would check the wastewater from all international flights that land in Vancouver or Toronto for new Covid variants.
EU advises uniform procedure
On Tuesday afternoon, the EU will discuss how to deal with the corona wave in China in the Health Security Committee (HSC), in which the 27 member countries are represented.
At the expert meeting, testing of waste water at airports for the corona virus and information for passengers and airport staff will be discussed, the EU Commission announced on Twitter.
Federal Minister of Health Karl Lauterbach (SPD) has already pushed for uniform EU measures.
Regarding a corona test obligation for travelers to China, he said on Friday that he currently saw no reason for this.
However, Germany is preparing a system for "variant monitoring" at airports in cooperation with other European countries in order to be able to react immediately if worrying new variants of the corona virus appear.
The analysis of waste water is considered an important tool in monitoring the infection process.
Anyone who is infected excretes virus particles with their bowel movements.
Theoretically, the analyzes can be used to discover new virus variants before they spread widely.
In Germany, too, there have been projects for a long time in which samples from sewage treatment plants are systematically examined for corona viruses.
It is not yet known whether the technology should also be used for aircraft waste water in this country.
China is currently experiencing the highest increase in corona infections in the world, and hospitals are overcrowded in many places.
In a radical about-face, Beijing abandoned its strict zero-Covid policy at the beginning of December.
Since then, the corona restrictions have been significantly relaxed.
According to unconfirmed estimates, 248 million people or 18 percent of the population were infected with Corona in the first three weeks of December alone.
In the metropolis of Shanghai, more than two thirds of the residents may have been infected with the corona virus in the past few days.
The outbreak may have affected "70 percent of the population," said Ruijin Hospital deputy head Chen Erzhen, according to a blog by the Chinese People's Daily.
The Ruijin Hospital is one of the most important hospitals in Shanghai, which is considered the economic capital of China with 25 million inhabitants.
Experts warn that the corona wave could produce new variants that would then find their way to other countries.
So far, however, there are no corresponding findings.
jae/dpa/AFP/Reuters
