Corona Virus RNA found in sewage samples

Question 1

What has happened?

Answer 1

The detection of the presence of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in sewage samples has raised the possibility of using environmental water surveillance to monitor virus activity in infected areas, researchers have said.

Similar environmental surveillance for the polio virus had played a critical role in the eradication of wild polio virus globally

Question 2

How it can be utilized?

Answer 2

detection in waste water could be used to understand the epidemiology of COVID-19. “Decreasing concentration or absence of virus at previously SARSCoV-2-positive sewage sampling sites may indicate successful implementation of COVID-19 control strategies and it may provide evidence of the presence or absence of SARS-CoV-2-infected populations and confirmation of COVID-19-free zones,” the study noted.