Sunday, January 24, 2021
Image: Noun Project CC
The Narragansett Bay Commission was accepted to participate in a COVID-19 study conducted by the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The study was designed to quickly monitor 100 million people in the United States through wastewater surveillance to monitor the COVID-19 epidemic and identify best practices for assessing SARS-CoV-2 wastewater and subsequent data analysis all over the country.
Questions about the transmission of coronavirus through wastewater began in May 2020, when the World Health Organization began to raise questions.
In October, MIT reported that the university began testing an effluent testing program as a new tool to help keep the campus community safe this semester.
“In a project that will last through the second semester, the wastewater from seven buildings on campus will be tested every day for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. The project is designed to determine whether the test wastewater treatment can be an effective early warning system for COVID-19 outbreaks on campus, and is being evaluated as a complementary tool in the Institute’s response to the pandemic, along with clinical testing, contact tracking and other measures, “reported the MIT.
Bullock Point wastewater treatment plant, PHOTO: NBC
How much virus is in the water
NBC’s Bucklin Point wastewater treatment facility in East Providence is participating in Phase I of the study, during which the raw wastewater affluent is tested twice a week for six weeks. Phase I will assess 10% of the US population by monitoring wastewater. Monitoring began on December 27, 2020.
The second phase will involve additional treatment plants to achieve the goal of monitoring 30% of the US population. All data will be compiled and transmitted to communities by HHS, with the aim of returning the data as soon as possible so that local health departments can make quick and actionable decisions.
“Wastewater treatment has always been essential to public health, protecting our citizens from diseases and epidemics such as dysentery and cholera,” said NBC President Vincent Mesolella. “It is a natural progression of our public health mission to contribute to the fight against COVID. We are very proud to be part of this study, providing valuable data to the leaders of our country during this challenging time. “
An article published in Nature reported: “The health risks of COVID-19 through water transmission may be greater than initially assumed, and wastewater should be further studied as a potential route for transmission of COVID-19. Evidence of the presence of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in wastewater systems is accumulating around the world The large number of individuals infected in the current pandemic, together with the high infectivity of SARS-CoV-2, may represent a new challenge for wastewater treatment and requires a future assessment of the risk of transmission through the reuse of wastewater. Such risks are expected to be greater in areas with high population density, direct exposure to aerosolized wastewater, as well as regions that lack collection, treatment and proper disinfection of wastewater.
“Extensive research on the frequency of detection of infectious SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater is urgently needed to obtain:
(1) critical information about the abundance of viruses in raw wastewater, treated wastewater and the receiving environment, which can be used to generate a quantitative risk assessment;
(2) information on removal efficiencies through the wastewater treatment train;
(3) disinfection requirements according to virus loading and transmission via WWTP to ensure complete removal of SARS-CoV-2 for wastewater reuse; and (4) epidemic surveillance for policy makers on the outbreak, extent and prevalence of the COVID-19 pandemic in the community, “wrote the report published in August.
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