Amman – The Ministry of Water and Irrigation in partnership with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) held  a virtual workshop on "COVID-19 Wastewater Surveillance in Jordan”, to provide an overview and lessons learned stemming from the implementation of a capacity building program for the central laboratory staff of the Water Authority of Jordan for monitoring COVID-19 in wastewater. 

  

The workshop highlighted the importance of wastewater surveillance in identifying COVID-19 hotspots, estimating disease prevalence, providing early warning for new outbreaks and confirming trends of clinical data. Wastewater testing provides information to reduce the spread of the COVID-19 virus, helping to protect the health and safety of the people in Jordan.    

  

During the workshop, water utilities experts, representatives of Ministry of Health, National Center for Security and Crises Management, funding agencies, academia and other stakeholders discussed means to use surveillance data as a supplement to clinical data and how best to shape wastewater surveillance on the national level. 

  

This capacity building program trained field, monitoring, and laboratory technicians at the Ministry of Water and Irrigation on health and safety, sample collection, sample concentration and analysis, and developed a roadmap for the implementation of wastewater surveillance for COVID-19 in Ain Ghazal.