CDC wants state and local sewage systems tested for coronavirus

Federal government is partnering with local health departments to begin testing sewage systems for coronavirus in an effort to catch the virus before it spreads quickly, according to the United States Centers for Disease Control .

The CDC, in partnership with the US Department of Health and Human Services and other federal government agencies, will begin working with state, local, territorial and tribal health departments to collect data on water samples wastewater, an effort they call the National Wastewater Surveillance System, or NWSS, according to CDC guidelines updated Monday.

The goal: to find traces of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes Covid-19, which escapes people and passes through the sewer system.

While wastewater testing is not intended to replace clinical testing, it can help communities where Covid-19 testing is “underused or unavailable,” the CDC says. Wastewater testing could potentially have huge reach – 80% of American homes are connected to a municipal sewer system.

Depending on the level of the virus in the wastewater, analysis of the wastewater can also be a leading indicator of a worsening epidemic. People with Covid-19 who show symptoms and those who do not can remove traces of the virus, allowing scientists to collect data on both types of infection, according to the CDC.

Wastewater testing has been used to detect other diseases, such as polio, and to determine the prevalence of opioid use in some American communities. Some public health experts, including Dr Ashish Jha, director of the Harvard Global Health Institute, have suggested using wastewater testing for Covid-19, saying it was a cost-effective strategy to track coronavirus and predict outbreaks .

The CDC is not currently taking samples for testing, but is looking for local partners to test and report the data to the agency’s NWSS portal.

Some countries have already started testing wastewater for the coronavirus, including Finland, Germany and the Netherlands, and city water utilities across the United States have said they will conduct the testing, reported STAT News end of May.