Study Shows Wastewater Monitoring to be Valuable Tool in COVID-19 Detection
Results of a monitoring program that has tested Bloomington’s wastewater for COVID-19 since August suggest that the virus can be detected in wastewater one week earlier than a hospital experiences an escalation in cases. For ten weeks, wastewater professionals from City of Bloomington Utilities (CBU) collected samples three times each week at eight sites across Bloomington, including each of the two wastewater treatment plants. Testing of those samples was conducted by multiple private, independent laboratories in an effort to gauge viral prevalence in the community.