CHESAPEAKE, Va. — The Chesapeake Health Department is using a new way to get people vaccinated. For more than a year, the Hampton Roads Sanitation District has been testing COVID-19 in wastewater. Now, they’re working with the Chesapeake Health Department on a new effort.

“They were aware of our regional surveillance that we’ve been doing weekly since March of 2020 and somewhere along the way in that time frame, they reached out and said, ‘We think this is really useful,’” said Kyle Curtis, an environmental scientist for Hampton Roads Sanitation District: 

Curtis said they will send data to the Chesapeake Health Department weekly. From there, the health department will use this information to identify rising COVID-19 cases and hold vaccine events in those areas.