Water Sector News & Trends

NEW ORLEANS, La. (WVUE) - Tulane researchers are out with the first peer reviewed study in the U.S. which detected coronavirus in wastewater.

The findings could go along way in helping to identify where outbreaks are occurring so that steps can be taken to try and contain it.

A new study from Tulane shows an entirely different way to detect community spread of coronavirus, and Congress is taking notice.

Up to now, U.S. health officials have relied on community testing and so far in Louisiana, 1.2 million people have been tested with more than 110,000 positive cases.

But now Tulane and LSU researchers have concluded the first peer reviewed study in the U.S., which focused in on a detection method for coronavirus, studying treated and untreated waste water at two Louisiana treatment plants. It found two samples of untreated sewage, out of seven tests, which contained coronavirus.