MICHIGAN, DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENT, GREAT LAKES & ENERGY: EGLE awards nearly $10 million in COVID-19 wastewater surveillance grants and equipment

By Press release submission

Nov 25, 2020

Michigan, Department of Environment, Great Lakes & Energy issued the following announcement on Nov. 20.

FUNDING AND LAB EQUIPMENT WILL SUPPORT 20 LOCAL PILOT PROJECTS

The Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) and the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) today announced that $6,539,138 in grant funding and an additional $3,087,431 in laboratory equipment has been awarded to 20 recipients across the state to support a three-month pilot program to test for the COVID-19 virus in wastewater. These pilot programs are being run by a network of 29 local health departments, 18 laboratories, and 125 university, municipal and other partners across Michigan.

Launched in October, the three-month pilot program supports local public health department efforts to coordinate with counties, universities, and other institutions across the state on COVID-19 wastewater testing programs. Local health departments are a crucial part of the pilot project as they will provide local interpretation and drive local mitigation efforts based on the reported results. These local efforts have the potential to be an early warning system for the spread of COVID-19 within a specific community or for coronavirus outbreaks on college campuses and at other densely populated facilities.

EGLE has also launched a webpage providing an overview of the COVID-19 wastewater surveillance pilot project. The page will also include sampling locations and testing data once it becomes available.

Testing wastewater for viruses, such as the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19, can be an effective tool for monitoring transmission of COVID-19 within a local community or at individual facilities. The virus is shed in human waste, including people who are not ill or have not yet become ill. The virus can then be detected by testing samples taken from sewers and wastewater treatment plants, with results often being available earlier than human clinical samples. These results can then inform local public health actions to prevent further spread within that community.

Original source can be found here.