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Scientists in Spain are expecting to begin regularly analyzing sewage for traces of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, The Scientist has learned. Pending budget approval from AXA or national funds in Spain, researchers will carry out the work for at least a whole year, having signed a special agreement with authorities in the Valencian Community, a region on Spain’s eastern coast that is home to nearly 5 million people.
It will involve the twice-weekly collection of samples from more than 250 wastewater treatment plants, says lead researcher Pilar Domingo-Calap, a biologist at the University of Valencia. Already, her team is sampling from 20 facilities in a preliminary phase of the project.
Previously, Domingo-Calap and colleagues had reported the discovery of SARS-CoV-2 traces circulating in Valencian wastewater that had been sampled on February 24—around the time the first COVID-19 cases were officially confirmed in mainland Spain. They ...
