CDC adds wastewater surveillance to COVID-19 dashboard

Editor's Note

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on February 4 announced that it is adding wastewater surveillance to its COVID-19 dashboard data tracking system.

The CDC will track the spread of COVID-19 variants based on measurements at more than 500 wastewater monitoring sites across the US.

This method may identify positive COVID-19 findings up to 6 days before clinical cases are reported.

Estimates suggest between 40% and 80% of people with COVID-19 shed viral RNA in their feces, making wastewater and sewage an important opportunity for monitoring the spread of infection, the CDC says.