Waste water tests could monitor 2 billion people for the coronavirus

Water treatment

We could test sewage for signs of the coronavirus

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We don’t know exactly how many people have been infected with the coronavirus due to a lack of comprehensive testing, but we could begin monitoring about 2 billion people worldwide right now, simply by looking for the pathogen in waste water.

“It feels like a no-brainer: everything is in place to do this,” says Rolf Halden at Arizona State University. “You could get a huge return on your investment and save many lives.”

The monitoring would be a fraction of the cost of traditional clinical testing, and …

source: newscientist.com