Georgia Tech has created new dashboards to track and report the status of wastewater testing as well as symptomatic positives (students only) from Stamps Health Services. The previous dashboard, that has tracked cases since 2020, has been archived and will remain publicly available.
As part of Georgia Tech’s continued monitoring of the overall health of the campus community, we have transitioned from individual surveillance testing to monitor the presence of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19, to wastewater testing using samples from several locations on campus. Over the past 18 months, Georgia Tech’s Covid-19 testing team has validated this method for Covid-19 monitoring and has put in place the necessary infrastructure to conduct broad-based wastewater surveillance.
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Yes, sewage surveillance has proven to be highly effective in detecting outbreaks of Covid-19 within communities. In fact, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has started a National Wastewater Surveillance System to collect and centralize data regarding the detection of pathogens in sewage or wastewater from around the country. This proven approach is also being used internationally to successfully monitor the health of communities.
Wastewater testing detects and quantifies short fragments of the virus’s (SARS-CoV-2) genome. It measures the number of copies of these fragments per liter of sewage, normalizing for dilution by stormwater and other variables.
Georgia Tech is sampling eight locations that provide access to wastewater from buildings in west, east, and north campus.
The sites were selected to provide a view of the overall health of the greater campus community.
Samples are collected on Monday and Thursday mornings. The frequency and sites of sampling may increase in the future if the pandemic intensifies or if new Covid-19 variants emerge that require special attention.
Samples are collected using a piece of equipment called an “autosampler.” These autosamplers are programmed to pump small volumes of sewage from a given site at regular time intervals throughout the day, yielding a “composite” sample of sewage that represents a sample collected over multiple days.
In general, higher SARS-CoV-2 genome counts reflect higher rates of Covid-19 infections, and, hence, an increased risk to public health. In addition, because severely infected individuals may shed more genetic material of SARS-CoV-2 in their stool, higher counts may indicate the presence of more severe infections.
No. Sewage sampling cannot reveal who is shedding viral RNA. The results will be used to understand trends and hotspots in infections across campus.
