RE: Sewage testing23 Oct 2020 08:28
From today's Daily Telegraph (thanks to RobbieFalcon for this - posted on Avacta board)
Monitoring sewage to detect Covid-19 outbreaks is effective, the Government has revealed as it plans to expand the programme across the country.
Scientists have been trialing the method since June, and have found that they can see spikes early on in areas which have low testing.
The programme to analyse sewage for traces of coronavirus will now be used to provide an early warning for local outbreaks. It can also give a clearer picture of asymptomatic spread, and show a surge before people develop symptoms.
Officials from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) said the method is successfully detecting fragments of genetic material from the virus in waste water.
Data from this testing, which has been rolled out to more than 90 waste water treatment sites across the UK, is being shared with the Joint Biosecurity Centre as part of NHS Test and Trace.