Rising Covid cases push experts to seek sewage surveillance

New Delhi: As Covid-19 cases continue to rise in the country, experts have called for intensified waste water-based epidemiological surveillance and genome sequencing to detect outbreaks and assess threats faster. This was stressed at a meeting held by the network of laboratories, which was set up to monitor genomic variations of the Covid-19 virus in India, last week, people familiar with the development told ET.

The meeting was attended by public health experts, officials from National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), and epidemiologists among others.

"The ongoing situation requires constant vigilance and India can't afford to be complacent," an expert who attended the meeting said on condition of anonymity.


Sewage water analysis helps detect Covid-19 variants much before they show up in clinical tests, the expert said.

Anurag Agrawal, dean, biosciences and health research, at Ashoka University, said surveillance of public health and pathogen genomics will help assess threats better.

Experts believe that India could see an increase in flu-like cases in the next few months.

Elderly people and those with compromised immunity should be the most careful. "They should follow Covid-appropriate behaviour, including wearing masks and maintaining good hygiene," one of the sources said.

According to the health ministry's Covid-19 dashboard, 203 new cases have been added since Sunday, taking the number of active cases in the country to 3,961. Four new deaths have been reported-one each in Delhi, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and Kerala- taking the death count since January 1 to 32.

"So far, it has been seen that the fatality was due to other issues and perhaps Covid-19 was incidental, meaning that people who died did not die due to Covid-19," a government official said.

While the latest outbreak poses little threat, it's important to keep a strict vigil and watch out for any "clustering or unusual pattern," the official added. A new variant of the coronavirus-NB 1.8.1-has been detected in various parts of the World, including India.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has designated it as a 'variant under monitoring'.