SEWAGE TESTING FOR COVID

Subject : Science & tech

Context : The UK government is expanding its testing of wastewater to detect the presence of coronavirus and its emerging variants.

Concept :

According to the country’s Department of Health and Social Care, the testing has now been ramped up to cover about two-thirds of the population
Over a year ago, researchers in Australia developed an early warning surveillance system to track the community transmission of COVID-19 by tracing the presence of the virus’s genes in raw sewage.
This was possible because some infected individuals may shed the virus in their stool or urine.
This method is especially useful in identifying the scale of spread of the disease in a community.
By detecting and quantifying the amount of virus found in the samples gives an indication of how widespread the virus is in an area, information that can be used by decision-makers to put restrictions on movement for certain people or start testing in an area more aggressively.
Even in areas where widespread testing may not be feasible, adopting this method can point out the efficacy of containment measures.