Sewer systems can be used as COVID-19 early warning signs

Early this week, Robert Robbins, president of the University of Arizona, got a phone call about poop that helped him stop an outbreak of COVID-19.

As part of the school’s return-to-campus plan, the university was analyzing the wastewater from on-campus dorms for signs of the coronavirus. The professor heading the project was calling to say he’d found the virus in the sewage from a dorm called Likins Hall.

Administrators descended on the dorm, tested every person inside, and found two cases in people who didn’t have symptoms.

“This is going to be a very valuable tool to help us get out in front,” Robbins said in a briefing today. Catching people who are infected with the virus but don’t have symptoms is critical to stopping its spread,...

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