wastewater

Wastewater tests are designed to provide an early warning system so that public health officials can ward off outbreaks.

As fewer people are getting tested for the coronavirus in offices, labs and pharmacies, sewer shed surveillance has become one of the most accurate ways to show the virus still exists in the community. The state and its partners at the University of Missouri are monitoring 112 sites to see if viral particles are increasing and if new variants are emerging in the region's wastewater.

The BA.2 subvariant is about 30% more transmissible than the original omicron variant and is fueling a surge in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations in Europe.

Scientists at the University of Missouri and their partners at the state health department have uncovered trace amounts of genetic material from the more contagious mutated virus in 15 of the 23 state watershed testing sites they have reviewed so far.

University of Missouri scientists have tested about 3,000 wastewater samples from water treatment plants, prisons, veterans homes and colleges and launched an online dashboard that shows where coronavirus concentrations are increasing. The project tests the wastewater of 4 million people, or nearly 70% of Missouri’s population.

Missouri health and environmental officials will soon test wastewater statewide to determine where and when coronavirus outbreaks could occur. Researchers…