With fewer and fewer people testing and reporting cases, scientists need new ways to track the illness.
SAN ANTONIO — We are in the middle a COVID surge right now in south Texas. In tonight’s Verify, we find out the testing numbers may not reflect the surge.
As soon as COVID tests were available whenever most people had a sniffle, cough, any illness they’d rush to get tested. But years later, that just isn’t the case. But there are other ways to figure out if COVID levels are going up, or are on the way down.
THE QUESTION
Is it true that wastewater can be used to track levels of COVID?
THE SOURCES
- Our sources for this Verify are Dr. Jason Bowling, an infectious disease specialist with University Health and professor of infectious diseases with UT Health San Antonio
- Dr. Barbara Taylor, also a professor of infectious diseases with UT Health San Antonio
THE ANSWER
WHAT WE FOUND
Dr. Bowling told us the technology has been around for years, but is now being used to COVID too.
“What they check is as water enters the wastewater plant, they take small amounts. And then they tested for the RNA of the virus.” said Bowling “And so that allows you to test for people that don’t have any symptoms and people that are sick and confirm it because it’s just getting all the wastewater.”
Dr. Taylor said the wastewater testing is needed, since so few people are now getting tested and reporting positive cases.
“It is interesting to see how important wastewater monitoring has become, because it is really one of the more reliable indicators, and it can be an early indicator of when a community is going to see more cases of COVID,” Taylor said.
So yes, it is true. Wastewater can be used to track levels of COVID.
The CDC has a wastewater metric map so you can track whether COVID levels are going up or down, based on the wastewater findings.
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