CCEE assistant professor Dr. Angela Harris’ research testing wastewater to track COVID-19 number was recently featured in a WRAL report.
The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services is using data from wastewater to measure the spread of the COVID-19 virus in the state, helping officials stay abreast of where outbreaks may occur.
“People with COVID-19 shed viral particles in their stool,” the NCDHHS website states. “These viral particles are pieces of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes COVID-19 when still intact. In wastewater, the particles are no longer infectious but can still be measured.”
About 11.3 million COVID-19 particles were found in the state’s wastewater from April 17 to April 23, while 106 million particles were found in the week ending on Jan. 19, according to the WRAL report.
“Using wastewater will still let us survey the population so we can start to see if there is anything particularly concerning that maybe we should start promoting more testing or having pop-up testing in locations,” Harris said.
Learn more in the WRAL article and video.
This post was originally published in the Departent of Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering.
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