The coronavirus will still be present in the United States beyond Thursday, when the public health emergency declared due to Covid-19 ends. However, several data feeds that have allowed Americans to track the infection may soon be disabled.
The CDC will no longer compile statistics on Covid-19 in the community and will no longer request specific case information from hospitals or testing data from labs. With fewer people taking advantage of free at-home testing, the official case count may stray farther from reality.
Experts who are monitoring the virus will still have access to a crucial resource, however: sewage.
Whether or whether an infected person takes a Covid test or seeks medical attention, they will still shed the pathogen in their faeces, allowing public health professionals to monitor the prevalence of the virus over time and keep an eye out for the introduction of new strains.
During the epidemic, this strategy quickly spread. More than 1,400 sample sites across 50 states, 3 territories, and 12 tribal communities have contributed data to the CDC’s National Wastewater Surveillance System, which was created in late 2020, according to Amy Kirby, the program’s director. She estimated that the data included 138 million individuals, or more than 40% of the U.S. population.
Furthermore, Dr. Kirby pointed out, as previous monitoring projects wind down, some localities are scrambling to establish wastewater surveillance programmes. She claimed that this was increasing people’s curiosity in wastewater treatment.
Scientists predict that wastewater monitoring will take on more significance in the coming months, allowing authorities to better detect potential epidemics.
Experts say more work is required to transform an ad hoc emergency effort into a sustainable national system, and that wastewater monitoring is still lacking in many places. As the epidemic develops, authorities will also need to exercise caution in interpreting the data.
The value of wastewater monitoring has been consistently shown during the last three years. Wastewater patterns paralleled the official Covid-19 case statistics during the time when testing was readily accessible. Spikes in the viral levels in sewage served as early signals of approaching surges, enabling authorities to reallocate public health resources and hospitals in anticipation of an influx of patients when testing was sparse.
Scientists were able to pinpoint the arrival dates of new variations in specific towns thanks to wastewater samples, allowing physicians to better decide when to employ therapies that may not be effective all of the virus.
Wastewater samples are currently collected weekly from each of Houston’s 39 wastewater treatment facilities, as well as from specific institutions including schools, shelters, nursing homes, and prisons. Loren Hopkins, chief environmental science officer for the Houston Health Department and a statistician at Rice University, stated that the city had no intentions to reduce its efforts.
Even though fatalities and hospitalisations are often trailing indications, the C.D.C. will continue to monitor them. Therefore, wastewater will likely continue to serve as an important early warning system for both authorities and the general population.
To monitor novel variations and assess their impact, experts say wastewater monitoring will become more important as clinical testing declines. Increased monitoring may be necessary, for example, if a variant rapidly takes over a sewershed or its proliferation is accompanied by a spike in local hospitalisation rates.
