Wastewater Measures Can Accurately Predict COVID-19 Outbreaks, Study Finds

HealthDay (6/26, Thompson) reports a study published in The Journal of Infectious Diseases found that “levels of the COVID virus, SARS-CoV-2, found in wastewater samples accurately predicted by a week the rise and fall of case counts in a community.” The researchers “took 215 wastewater samples from the Twin Cities Wastewater Treatment Plant between January 2022 and August 2024” and compared the samples’ virus levels “against reported COVID cases among people treated by Fairview Health Services, a Minnesota-based health system.” Researchers stated that “Fairview reported nearly 6,900 COVID cases during the 32-month study period among people who live in the area served by the treatment plant.” They observed that “three distinct COVID case surges occurred over that time, and levels of virus in wastewater accurately predicted each surge.”