With vaccines widely available in the US, and as restrictions are eased or eliminated, individual PCR testing of infected individuals alone is no longer practical for long-term monitoring and prevention of COVID-19 outbreaks. However, there is still risk of future outbreaks from viral variants.
Wastewater testing is a rapid, passive, and non-intrusive approach to assessing the infection burden in a community and overcomes the bias of access to medical care. This data can enable quicker and more targeted responses, including further individual testing, implementation of non-therapeutic public health action and rapid development and deployment of targeted treatments.
In partnership with Stanford University and the University of Michigan, Verily has developed a novel, sensitive and scalable method to measure levels of SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater.
Our new whitepaper outlines our approach to regular, prospective monitoring of COVID-19 incidence rates. You will learn about:
How Verily’s platform was designed to take advantage of coronaviruses’ natural affinity for wastewater solids
Analysis methods that result in several orders of magnitude higher quantification than other approaches
The platform’s scalability across variations in wastewater and processing, exemplified by a case study of daily sampling at Northern California plants
Download the whitepaper to learn more.
