Australia sifts through sewage to find hidden coronavirus clusters

Melbourne is testing waste water and excrement for traces of the virus in a bid to focus conventional tracing strategy on problem suburbs

Hydrographers lower buckets into sewer lines to collect samples, which are then taken to a lab where they are tested for ultra-trace levels of the virus

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A hydrographer takes samples from a sewer in Melbourne. Photo: AFP

Published: 2:18pm, 21 May 2020Updated: 2:41pm, 21 May 2020

Australia is getting down and dirty to combat the coronavirus pandemic – unrolling a vast programme of sewage testing this week in the hope of finding hidden clusters of the virus.

Melbourne has begun testing waste water and excrement for traces of the virus in a bid to focus conventional testing and tracing strategies on problem suburbs or neighbourhoods.

Nicholas Crosbie of Melbourne Water said the utility hopes to monitor samples from 71 per cent of people in Victoria, one of Australia’s most populous states.

“So the whole point of this is to be vigilant and to find undetected cases or re-emergence,” he told said.

Sewage has also been tested in places like Paris, Tokyo, Amsterdam, Massachusetts and Valencia, Spain – although mostly on a small scale to prove detection can work.

As Australia takes tentative steps toward reopening after a two-month shutdown, health officials are betting on a massive programme of testing and contact tracing to help prevent a second wave of cases.