Sewage could hold the key to stopping new coronavirus outbreaks

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The vast brown rivers of sludge that gush into the sewage treatment plants across Germany may hold a key to early detection of any new wave of the coronavirus, scientists tell CNN.

The Helmholtz Center for Environmental Research is leading a trial that's sampling wastewater from plants serving some of the largest urban areas and trying to find evidence of the coronavirus.

The concept seems fairly simple: Sewage contains remnants of the virus from human feces. If those concentrations suddenly jump, sewage plants would detect that and alert authorities to take action and begin targeted testing of the area in question. But in reality, it's not as straightforward. At Leipzig's main sewage plant, samples are extracted every two minutes as the wastewater streams through 24 hours a day.

Yet, the scientists say they could detect a Covid trace surge within a day and transmit that information to local authorities. Germany has been held up as an example of a country that has successfully fended off the worst ravages of the virus. As of Friday, it had reported more than 182,000 cases of Covid-19 with around 8,400 deaths, significantly lower than other European countries.

On Tuesday, it was announced the KWR data will be integrated into the Dutch government's Covid-19 monitoring dashboard.

 

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