STAFFORD, Va. (AP) - An analysis of sewage in one Virginia county indicates that it has 10 times as many people walking around with the coronavirus than test results suggest.
The Free Lance-Star reported Friday that Stafford County has been conducting experimental testing at two wastewater plants since April.
The Stafford facilities are among more than 100 wastewater treatment plants across the country that are participating in a no-cost pilot program.
Sewage can provide an early indicator of a disease spreading before people start seeking health care. Sampling of households hooked up to the county sewer system showed that up to 18 percent of North Stafford’s population may have the virus.
“That means one out of every five people in Stafford may be infected,” Deputy County Administrator Michael Smith wrote in a letter to the county’s board of supervisors.
Smith stressed that the number is still in the testing phase and that “there is not a lot of confidence in the actual number of cases.” But he said that the presence and concentration of the COVID genome can be used to determine if cases are increasing.
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