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Dutch scientists found coronavirus in sewage before outbreak: Report

The scientists detected genetic material from the coronavirus at a wastewater treatment plant in Amersfoort on March 5

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A medical doctor and an industrialist volunteer wearing protective masks and a glove tries out a 3D-printed face mask at a workshop in Basra, Iraq Photo: REUTERS

Jason Gale | Bloomberg

2 min read Last Updated : Apr 01 2020 | 12:01 AM IST

Dutch scientists were able to find the coronavirus in a city’s wastewater before Covid-19 cases were reported, demonstrating a novel early warning system for the pneumonia-causing disease.

The so-called SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus is often excreted in an infected person’s stool. Although it’s unlikely that sewage will become an important route of transmission, the pathogen’s increasing circulation in communities will increase the amount of it flowing into sewer systems, Gertjan Medema and colleagues at the KWR Water Research Institute in Nieuwegein said on Monday.

They detected genetic material from the coronavirus at a wastewater treatment plant in Amersfoort on March 5, before

Topics : Coronavirus

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