¾«¶«ÊÓƵ

After a year of managing the COVID-19 pandemic, we’ve all become hyper-alert to any news about community-spread case numbers. But how are these cases detected and determined?

There are a range of measures to detect and trace COVID-19 in the community, each with its own advantages. For example, sewage testing can be used to determine whether COVID-19 is active in the surrounding area, while nasal and throat swabs can be administered to many people at low cost. 

, which used highly sensitive antibody tests, found antibodies for COVID-19 in the blood of healthy people, and estimated that many people were carrying the virus undetected. This is just one of the trade-offs that different forms of testing make between speed, sensitivity and efficiency.

Join our panel of experts from across New Zealand, Taiwan and Australia to discuss different COVID-19 testing and tracing approaches.

• Dr Paul Bertsch, Science Director, CSIRO Land and Water, Australia
• Professor Michael Bunce, EPA Chief Scientist, New Zealand
• Professor Yee-Chun Chen, Director, Centre for Infection Control, National Taiwan University Hospital, Taiwan

Date: Tuesday 23 February 2021

Time: 5.30pm – 6.30pm AEDT

Venue: Online - livestream at the top of this page

Join the conversation on Twitter, tag @Science_Academy and use the hashtag #FightingCoV2.