The feces of a person with Covid-19 carry the virus, which is thus passed into wastewater.
People who work in water and sanitation services in cities can collect wastewater samples that, once analyzed, allow determining the concentration of the virus to estimate the extent of the disease in the population that uses the sewage system.
Latin America and the Caribbean is one of the epicenters of the epidemic, with some of the highest death rates in the world and more than 1.56 million deaths recorded since the start of the pandemic.
“The Covid-19 pandemic has meant for many countries in the region the loss of years of achievements in terms of development and has highlighted the need to develop new tools to better prepare for and respond to future crises,” he estimates in the statement Carlos Felipe Jaramillo, Vice President of the World Bank for Latin America and the Caribbean.
The region “can benefit from the use of its water and sanitation infrastructure to monitor public health risks, such as Covid-19,” adds Jaramillo, who assures that the World Bank will help countries “to finance and implement smart investments” to be able to solve complex problems, such as the pandemic.