Existing databases

In this section we identify the required, relevant and available (open source) data for COVID-19 health and wastewater surveillance purposes.

The following dashboards are already available and operational in the two focus countries.

South Africa

In South Africa, the official national wastewater surveillance dashboard is managed by the NICD: https://www.nicd.ac.za. Work on the official dashboard commenced around the end of 2021. In the meantime, several other dashboards have been built across the country, mostly on a provincial level and most only including health data, not SARS-COV-2 wastewater data. The official, national dashboard including both health and wastewater data is currently still a work in progress.

An overview of the dashboards publicly available in South Africa

In South Africa, wastewater surveillance has not been adopted by the health authorities, and only conducted through Water Research Commission, Science Councils and other research organisations such as universities:

  • Wastewater surveillance: Provided by various research institutes across the country, who in turn are dependent on the capacity of their local municipalities.

  • Clinical data: Provided by both public and private institutes which feed into the dashboard e.g. local laboratories and hospitals.

The Netherlands

In the Netherlands, a national, Corona Dashboard (https://coronadashboard.government.nl), owned by the national government (Rijksoverheid) was developed by the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport (VWS) and continues to provide information about the development of the coronavirus in the Netherlands. The dashboard is fed with data from wastewater surveillance and clinical data, amongst others. The roles and responsibilities per institute are very clear:

  • Wastewater surveillance: Provided by the Dutch National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM), who in turn are dependent on the wastewater sampling via the water authorities

  • Infection data, contact tracing and vaccination data: Provided by the Municipal Health Services (GGD)

  • Clinical data: hospitalisations and number of patients in hospital are provided by LCPS - Landelijk Coördinatiecentrum Patiënten Spreiding (National Co-ordination Center for Patient Distribution) and in intensive care is provided by NICE - Stichting Nationale Intensive Care Evaluatie (National Intensive Care Evaluation Foundation).

  • Death toll and population statistics per municipality: RIVM and CBS - Central Bureau of Statistics

  • Infected elderly homes: OSIRIS administration system

  • Coronamelder app and support for corona policy: GGD