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COVID-19 in sewage is new gauge on state dashboard
State officials are publishing data from 19 Michigan sewage treatment plants and more than 400 wastewater collection systems to create an early warning system for COVID-19 outbreaks.
The wastewater monitoring dashboard went live the week of Dec. 6 on the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services wastewater website.
The Sentinel Wastewater Epidemiology Evaluation Project – SWEEP, for short – consolidates COVID-19 data from 17 counties and Detroit.
“The monitoring increases virus detection and provides an early warning that someone is infected in the community,” said Chelsea Wuth, the associate public information officer for the state Department of Health and Human Services.
Michigan’s public health programs have battled the virus through contact tracing, vaccinating and setting up testing centers, said Joan Rose, the co-director of the Centers for Water Sciences and Advancing Microbial Risk Assessment at Michigan State University.