San Francisco International Airport has launched a program with the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to test wastewater from airplanes for traces of emerging coronavirus variants.
Traces of the virus that causes COVID-19 can be detected in people's feces when they are infected, even if they don't have symptoms.
SFO will be the first airport to launch this pilot program with the CDC, Airport Director Ivar Satero said in the announcement. Once those wastewater samples arrive at a diagnostic lab for testing, scientists scan them for traces of known or unknown viruses, such as emerging variants of SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes COVID-19.
Monitoring sewage for traces of coronavirus variants is a"validated" scientific process -- no longer in its pilot phase -- and airplanes are a logical next step, McKnight said.
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