Long-term care providers have another tool for detecting COVID-19 infections earlier to avoid large outbreaks within their facilities.
Wastewater testing for COVID-19 at congregate facilities was proven to be an effective method for early case detection, according to a new study led by University of Virginia Health researchers.
Findings showed that the method was able to catch more than 96% of COVID-19 cases after monitoring wastewater at a student dorm complex for eight weeks.
The strategy worked best detecting for initial infections and even finding asymptomatic cases, but researchers struggled to distinguish between new and older infections.
They also found that refrigerating wastewater samples on ice worked well with preserving them for same-day testing, and suggested providers who send their samples elsewhere for testing take additional steps to ensure they remained viable for a longer period.
The findings are believed to offer some of the first clear guidance on the effectiveness of wastewater testing. Researchers said the method could best be applied to surveillance in congregate settings, like skilled nursing facilities, where transmission is hard to control and the risk of spread is high.
“Since we can identify new infections with high sensitivity, it provides an early warning signal of when to test everyone in the building to find and isolate the newly infected persons before an outbreak becomes large,” lead researcher Amy Mathers, M.D. said. “Applications for wastewater surveillance to inform and control infectious disease transmission will continue to evolve, but it is hard to believe how far and how fast we have come in the last year.”
