New York City May Test Sewage Samples To Track Future Coronavirus Outbreaks

TOPLINE

New York City officials have developed a protocol to detect the genetic material of the novel coronavirus from the city’s wastewater samples, something it hopes may provide early warning for future outbreaks of the disease, the Wall Street Journal reported.

KEY FACTS

The city’s Department of Environmental Protection said that analyzing the sewage for the coronavirus, like it regularly does other pathogens, could allow officials to “get ahead of outbreaks before people start showing up in emergency rooms.”

Scientists have found that some people who contract Covid-19 excrete some virus particles in their feces, even before they become symptomatic.

The scientists believe that quantifying the amount of viral material in sewage samples could allow health workers to detect hotspots early.

While sewage samples have always been tested for viral pathogens, developing a protocol for detecting the novel coronavirus in wastewater is new and there are varying methods being used.

Local officials in Oregon, California, Utah, Florida and many other places have also begun collecting sewage samples to test for the virus.

The startup Biobot Analytics in Cambridge, Massachusetts, has developed its own method, which is being used by 42 states, while researchers at SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry and Syracuse University have developed their own separate method used in upstate New York.

Key Background

The Covid-19 outbreak has killed more than 23,000 New York City residents, including probable deaths. While the rate of infections and deaths have dropped dramatically since the peak in April, concerns of a possible second wave of the disease remain. The city’s decision to test sewage to detect a possible second wave follows previously established precedents on disease surveillance. Between 2010 and 2013 researchers in Japan tested sewage for poliovirus, successfully identifying mutations of the disease in immunized populations. Meanwhile, the Netherlands identified new coronavirus in its sewage six days before the first case was reported in the country. Researchers in Italy and France have also utilized this method in attempts to determine local levels of Covid-19.

Tangent

Biobot, whose virus detection protocol is being used by 42 states, raised $4.2 million in April to estimate the scope of coronavirus by analyzing poop, Forbes had reported.

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