Sewage samples from Chandigarh found positive for Covid-19

In a first, sewage samples in the city tested positive for Covid-19.

The Department of Virology, Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education & Research, Chandigarh (PGI), tested a sewage sample in Chandigarh. After the test, the sample was tested positive for the Covid-19 with the recent surge in cases.

The samples were tested as a declaration of the WHO-ICMR Centre for “environment supervision for Covid-19”. Professor Mini P Singh of PGI stated, “Samples tested in December were found to be negative for Covid-19.”

“After a surge in the Covid cases currently, the virus has also been detected in sewage samples. The samples are experimented once per week at each site to scrutinize the movement.”

In December last year, PGI began testing samples from the wastewater treatment plants in Chandigarh and Punjab’s Amritsar. Diggian sewage treatment plant and the BRD plant in the metropolis collected the samples.

Besides, Covid-19 surveillance in sewage samples can be utilized as an epidemiological tool as a feature of virus transmission, and proper preventive measurements can be formed in a certain catchment zone. Thus, the sample was experimented on the RT-PCR machine to witness the existence of the SARS-CoV-2 virus via pieces of genetic material (RNA) in wastewater.

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