VANDALIA. Ohio — Several cities in the Miami Valley are testing wastewater for COVID-19 and the testing could prepare hospitals for a surge in cases before it happens.
In April 2020, Ohio partnered with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to start testing wastewater for COVID-19.
While not every city in Ohio is currently participating in the testing, several in the Miami Valley are, including Dayton, Springfield, Beavercreek and Tricities, which services Huber Heights, Vandalia, and Tipp City.
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Danny Knife, General Manager of Tricities Wastewater, said, “This is a trend of the sampling we’ve done. It shows the RNA or gene copies we’ve sampled.”
Testing someone with COVID-19 symptoms, lags behind the spread of the virus. For someone who has been infected with COVID-19 even before the onset of symptoms. When people wash their hands, brush their teeth, shower, use the restroom – fragments of the virus are shed from the body and go down the drain and they end up in a wastewater plant.
Knife explained over the course of 24 hours, every Tuesday and Thursday, small samples of the water coming into the wastewater plant will be gathered. Those samples are then sent off to Ohio State where they are tested.
“So, they’re looking for fragments of the virus, which is gene copies or RNA of the virus within the water stream and within that, it’s an indicator of the virus,” Knife said.
The amount of RNA found in the wastewater is then uploaded to the state health department’s website, and how it correlates with the number of confirmed cases in the community.
Knife said, “This trend shows us that back in December, cases were very high and by cases, I mean the RNA that was tested in the wastewater and it started to come back down in the spring and then now it’s coming bac up as the Delta variant rises in our communities.”
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What is useful about this testing is Knife and his team can collect the wastewater, have it sent off to be tested and have results back a week before positive cases start to pop up in the community.
The number one priority in Tipp city, Vandalia and Huber Heights is public health and safety. “We’re able to let them know quickly if infection rates are going up and they can be prepared to deal with that,” Knife said.
He also said this is a volunteer program which is why not all wastewater facilities are doing the testing. But he said if the state asks the testing to be done, Tricities will continue with the collection.