JEFFERSON CITY, MO, JAN. 5, 2020 - The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services (DHSS), Department of Natural Resources (DNR) and researchers at the University of Missouri – Columbia have been collaborating on a statewide project to test domestic wastewater for genetic markers of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. Missouri’s Coronavirus Sewershed Surveillance Project is funded by a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Epidemiology and Laboratory Capacity grant, Environmental Public Health Tracking, and federal CARES funds.
Studies in the Netherlands, Italy and United States found a direct correlation between the amount of SARS-CoV-2 genetic material in sewage and the number of reported cases within a given “sewershed,” or the area that drains into a community’s wastewater collection system.