The New York City sewers, whose tradition has spawned films, children’s books and fantastic alligator infestation tales, have now taken a role in the pandemic: Scientists are tracking epidemics by monitoring the gray, smelly effluent flowing in underground pipes in hopes of identifying coronavirus clusters days before they appear during tests on patients.
The business, which has escalated in recent weeks, has mirrored efforts across the country to monitor waterways for viral components, flushed down toilets by infected Americans who excrete it in feces.
Increasing traces of the virus have been detected in New York in recent months in sewage samples taken from sewage treatment plants near coronavirus hotspots in Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island. But now, scientists say, increases are being seen across the city, as infection rates hit their highest level since spring.
This type of wastewater analysis is especially difficult in New York City, where 7,500 miles of pipes treat 1.3 to 3 billion gallons of wastewater per day, depending on precipitation levels, making it nearly impossible for them. scientists to determine exactly the neighborhoods where the viral remains are located. actually coming from.
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This is one of the reasons why city health officials say individual testing is still the best tool for tracking the virus. On Tuesday, the average seven-day positive test rate was 4.94%, according to Mayor Bill de Blasio.
Sewer surveillance is “just one piece of a much bigger puzzle, and we’re still trying to figure out where it is,” said Dr Jay Varma, the mayor’s senior public health adviser. “It is absolutely worth pursuing.”
The samples are all analyzed at Newtown Creek, the North Brooklyn wastewater treatment plant, the largest in the city, and is distinguished by its huge sparkling digestion tanks that break down organics in the wastewater.
A microbiology lab that has long been used to measure bacteria in wastewater, as well as viruses like poliovirus and norovirus, has been expanded to include coronavirus testing.
Sewer work isn’t glamorous, but the employees of the department pride themselves on maintaining a system that most New Yorkers know little about and rely on a lot. Michael Radano, deputy head of the plant, said he was a third generation worker for the department.
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Vincent Sapienza, commissioner of the Department of Environmental Protection, laughed and said, “He’s got sewage flowing through his veins.
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