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Ohio Begins Wastewater Monitoring Network For COVID-19 Tracking

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COLUMBUS, Ohio (Statehouse News Bureau) — The state is rolling out a new program to help local officials track potential outbreaks of COVID-19. Ohio has put together a network of wastewater treatment plants in an attempt to detect the coronavirus through sewage.

There are more than 20 wastewater treatment plants in Ohio studying samples looking for traces of the coronavirus.

Gov. Mike DeWine (R-Ohio) says these types of detection efforts can discover an uptick in coronavirus in the waste of people with and without symptoms.

“It can be detected in wastewater as many as three to seven days before those infections lead to increases in case counts or hospitalizations in a community,” says DeWine.

National wastewater surveillance programs are already underway in several countries including The Netherlands and Pakistan.