Tests at wastewater treatment plants in France have revealed levels of coronavirus that rise and fall over time like clinical cases.
By Christa Lesté-LasserreScience’s COVID-19 reporting is supported by the Pulitzer Center.By sampling sewage across greater Paris for more than 1 month, researchers have detected a rise and fall in novel coronavirus concentrations that correspond to the shape of the COVID-19 outbreak in the region, where a lockdown is now suppressing spread of the disease.
Although several research groups have reported detecting coronavirus in wastewater, the researchers say the new study is the first to show that the technique can pick up a sharp rise in viral concentrations in sewage before cases explode in the clinic.