US plans to sample airline wastewater as COVID-19 cases rise in China

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention might start collecting wastewater from aeroplanes on international routes to track emerging coronavirus variants.

According to infectious disease experts, the policy would effectively track the coronavirus and narrow its entrance into the United States. Earlier this week, the US imposed new travel guidelines for international travel, including mandatory Covid tests for passengers from China, Reuters reported.

However, Dr Michael Osterholm, an infectious disease expert at the University of Minnesota, believes that travel restrictions are unsuccessful in controlling the spread of COVID-19 and are only valid from a political outlook.

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In support of the policy, the US CDC spokesperson Kristen Nordlund wrote in an email, "Previous COVID-19 wastewater surveillance has shown to be a valuable tool, and aeroplane wastewater surveillance could be an option."

Last week, Seattle and Los Angeles became a part of the voluntary genomic sequencing, making the number of airports amassing details from positive tests to seven. However, experts say that it may not provide a significant sample size.

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Test results of wastewater from airlines will paint a clearer picture of the mutations in the deadly coronavirus, as per Dr Eric Topol, a genomics expert and director of Scripps Research Translational Institute in La Jolla, California. Dr Topol refers to the policy as a 'good tactic.' He says that the US needs to elevate its methods due to China's lack of data transparency.

However, China claims that the fusses over its COVID-19 statistics are unsupported. But other countries, like Italy, Japan, and France, have imposed strict travel restrictions for Chinese citizens or people travelling from China.

French researchers say requesting a mandatory negative COVID-19 report before onboarding international flights are unlikely to prevent coronavirus from spreading. As per a report, they found the Omicron variant in wastewater from two commercial aeroplanes that flew from Ethiopia to France in December 2021.

In July, California researchers also reported that wastewater samples in San Diego had Alpha, Delta, Epsilon, and Omicron variants.

(With inputs from agencies)

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