Predicting pandemics: How Irish universities are building early warning Covid systems

Developed during the third wave of the pandemic, a free rapid testing project across Irish universities is now trying to develop an early warning system for the presence of SarsCoV2 on college campuses.

The UniCov UCC Lab team in Cork (from left) Sophie Broderick, a medical student; Niall O'Leary, senior lecturer in environmental microbiology; John Mac Sharry, lecturer in medical microbiology, and Joanna Szafran, microbiology graduate. Picture: Denis Minihane.

THE year of college on Zoom is over, and while campuses are not quite back to full capacity, they are busier than the ghost towns seen during previous Covid waves.

However, with case numbers on the rise, what can be done to keep students safe, colleges open, and Covid under control in an age cohort more eager than most to get out and about and back to normal?