UBC research shows wastewater genomic testing can effectively track COVID-19 variants of concern within a region

13 July, 2021

Wastewater testing can accurately and rapidly identify levels of COVID-19 infections in the community, including the rise of variants of concern, suggests new research led by UBC professor Dr. Ryan Ziels.

Ziels and his colleagues analyzed sewage samples from five municipal wastewater plants in the Metro Vancouver region during a period of increased COVID-19 case counts, from February to April 2021.

The results, described online in preprint at medrxiv, showed that viral concentrations in wastewater collected from the Vancouver region closely tracked the numbers of clinical cases in the region.

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