Traces of the Covid-19 virus detected in wastewater could act as an "early warning system" to identify potential flareups of the infection in populations, researchers in Switzerland claim.
Scientists are working to develop a system whereby sewage samples could be used to warn public health bodies of possible surges in cases of the illness around a week before diagnostic testing.
"Wastewater doesn't lie, and it reflects what is excreted by the public within a few hours," lead researcher Christoph Ort of the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology (Eawag) said in a statement.
While concentrations in the most recent samples are very high, researchers were surprised that they were also able to detect the virus in very low concentrations in wastewater samples collected in February.
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