ASU researchers are partnering with three cities in the Phoenix metropolitan area to monitor the cities’ wastewater to gauge the levels of COVID-19 infections in those communities. The effort could help establish an early warning system to help detect potential threats to public health before those threats turn into disease outbreaks, says Fulton Schools Professor Rolf Halden, director of the ASU’s Center for Environmental Health Engineering. Researchers are capable of monitoring in real time data gathered from wastewater that indicates traces of coronavirus and other information critical to protecting people’s health, Halden says. This approach might also have economic benefits by reducing the need to spend public funds to perform clinical coronavirus tests.

See Also: Scientists Turn to Sewage as Indicator of Coronavirus Spread in Population, News 18 India, May 1

The true number of coronavirus cases might be found in raw sewage, South Florida Sun Sentinel, May 1

Testing insufficient, researchers analyze sewage to check spread of coronavirus, Microbiz India, May 1