Posted By: News Editor
January 28, 2021
Levi Brandenburg
lbrandenburg@murraystate.edu
A wastewater testing project for Mayfield, Kentucky, is helping to track and identify potential COVID-19 outbreaks before the infected even begin showing symptoms.
The project started in November and is a partnership between the Graves County Health Department, Murray State, Mayfield Electric and Water Systems, the Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky and the University of Louisville Co-Immunity Project.
The process begins in Mayfield, where the wastewater samples are collected by Mayfield Electric and Water Systems at their wastewater treatment facilities. From there, it is sent to Bikram Subedi, assistant professor of analytical chemistry, and Gary Zeruth, associate professor of cellular and molecular biology, for testing.
Day Around the Bay: COVID-19 Variant Discovered in Southern California
The far more communicable strain of COVID-19 that s been circulating in the UK and elsewhere has been discovered in Southern California. San Diego County officials announced that the variant was detected in a 30-year-old man today; the strain was first documented in the United States in a Colorado patient working for the National Guard, who was assigned to a nursing home in Simla, Colorado; both patients reported no travel history. [NYT/CBS News]
2020 was, without question, a dumpster fire of a year but it was a year characterized by far fewer public mass shootings than usual. 2019 saw 10 documented public mass shootings in the United States; 2020 has, thus far, seen less than two of them. [Associated Press/ CBS News]
Updated: 11:32 AM PST December 15, 2020
SAN DIEGO COUNTY, Calif. San Diego is participating in a statewide program to monitor its untreated wastewater for the virus that causes COVID-19, it was announced Tuesday.
City staff have been monitoring for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, or SARS-CoV-2, in untreated wastewater at the Point Loma Wastewater Treatment Plant this month. Following the test run, staff will monitor for SARS-CoV-2 three times a week from January through June 2021.
All data will be reported to the state within 24 hours of receiving results. Assisting the state in monitoring wastewater for this virus is vitally important to the public, said Shauna Lorance, director of the city s public utilities department. We hope that the information we provide will help health officials better understand the virus and stop the spread of COVID- 19.
Assisting the state in monitoring wastewater for this virus is vitally important to the public, said Shauna Lorance, director of the city s public utilities department. We hope that the information we provide will help health officials better understand the virus and stop the spread of COVID-19. The good vaccine news is tempered by worsening case data for the county and state. NBC 7 s Alexis Rivas has more.
The California Department of Public Health and the State Water Resources Control Board initiated the wastewater-based epidemiology program in coordination with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and are participating in the National Wastewater Surveillance System, a collaborative effort among states to monitor wastewater.