He is now part of a national group, led by ESR, working to sample wastewater, and hoping to find a way to detect SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19, in sewage. This could become a tool to monitor the virus and help uncover pockets of infection. Researchers could then predict which communities could come out of lockdown or return to it because the virus was circulating, he said. Both the Scottish biodiversity study undertaken in 2018 and the New Zealand study used the DNA or RNA found in the water to determine what organisms were present. Otago research and enterprise deputy vice-chancellor Richard Blaikie is co-convening a national Covid-19 diagnostic development working group.

Source: Otago Daily Times April 27, 2020 23:03 UTC