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Sewer science: How wastewater sampling helps track COVID-19
Throughout much of the pandemic, public health experts have used an unlikely tool in the fight against COVID-19: the sewer system.
In the fall of 2020, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) launched the National Wastewater Surveillance System. Many health departments in the U.S. take part in this program. They monitor wastewater (sewage) for the virus that causes COVID-19. Wastewater tracking can alert them to an uptick in local infections even before a lot more people start to test positive for COVID-19.
How it works
People who have COVID-19 (even if they don’t feel sick) can shed the virus in their feces. The virus enters the sewer system when people flush their toilets. It then goes through sewer pipes to the local treatment plant, where it is sampled before it is treated. A lab tests the samples and measures the amount of virus in the wastewater. The results are shared with health departments.