The CDC is now tracking wastewater throughout the United States instead of tracking individual COVID-19 cases.
Not depending on individual testing, authorities may now identify possible surges and viral trends, so establishing an early warning system for outbreaks.
While tracking cases of COVID-19 by individual case counts is on the decrease, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are turning to a creative approach : monitoring wastewater.
Wastewater monitoring reaches nearly 43 percent of the U.S. population and measures the sewage system to give insights into the virus’s spread in communities. That is not a case of numbers but an early warning system for viral patterns.
Public health professionals can capture rising virus loads through wastewater sampling before they trigger hospital outbreaks.
The CDC exploits its anonymous data to identify patterns from the wastewater treatment plants by state and keeps in front of emerging variations. This approach has shown to be very beneficial for tracking not just COVID-19 but other infectious diseases, including RSV and mpox.
The CDC regularly updates the entries in its database, indicating the general behavior of the virus in the country. Some states experience enhanced viral activity, while others lose some ground on account of certain specific circumstances.
This novel approach enables public health organizations to track possible outbreaks and share vital information in controlling them and protecting populations.
