Covid-19: using wastewater to track the pandemic

EPFL researchers, working in association with the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology (Eawag), have developed a method for detecting the novel coronavirus in wastewater samples. Their method has been tested successfully on samples collected during the first phase of the pandemic, paving the way to an early-stage warning system. Scientists around the world are studying the novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) from many different perspectives in an effort to better understand how it infects the body and spreads from person to person. The goal is to find therapies for neutralizing and eliminating it. One approach being taken by researchers at EPFL and Eawag - until drug treatments and a vaccine are developed - is to analyze wastewater samples so that health officials can detect the virus before the disease is diagnosed clinically. "Our study looks at how we can detect the virus in wastewater and measure its concentration before people start developing clinical symptoms - and to determine how much time before," says Tamar Kohn, head of EPFL's Environmental Chemistry Laboratory (LCE). Thanks to Christoph Ort at Eawag's Urban Water Management Department and Tim Julian at Eawag's Environmental Microbiology Department, the researchers pulled off a major feat in showing that the novel coronavirus can be detected and measured in wastewater in a matter of weeks.