Interview G.J. Medema - Watcher in the wastewater

“Studies from around the world have shown that genetic traces of SARS-CoV-2 correlate with COVID-19 disease trends. The first reported detection of the novel coronavirus in sewage came in February. A study posted on 30 March on the health science preprint server medRxiv reported that a sample collected from Amersfoort, the Netherlands, tested positive for the virus six days before COVID-19 was diagnosed in that city, indicating that “wastewater surveillance can serve as an early warning of SARS-CoV-2 community transmission,” says Gertjan Medema, a microbiologist at the KWR Water Research Institute who led the research.”

(Citation: Schmidt, C. – Watcher in the wastewater – Nature Biotechnology (2020)28 July – doi.org/10.1038/s41587-020-0620-2)