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The coronavirus was already circulating in Barcelona in March 2019, according to an analysis of frozen wastewater
June 26, 2020
© Unidad Editorial, S.A.
A worker disinfects the lifeguard’s chair this Thursday on the Barceloneta beach
As studies of the pandemic progress, scientists are discovering the presence of the coronavirus in Europe at increasingly earlier dates. The analysis of the wastewater generated in cities has become one of the main clues to follow its trail.
The team from the University of Barcelona (UB) led by Professor Albert Bosch revealed a few days ago that it was already present in the sewage of the city of Barcelona since at least on January 15, 41 days before the declaration of the first case of Covid-19, which was notified on February 25. Now they have turned to older frozen samples and been in for a big surprise: have found traces of the SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater from Barcelona collected on March 12, 2019, long before a Covid-19 case was reported in any country, its results published provisionally in the repository Medrxiv, and therefore, without having undergone the usual scientific review, represent the earliest tests for the coronavirus.
Until a few months ago, the pandemic was believed to have been declared in the Chinese city of Wuhan in early 2019 and would have reached Europe in January. The first case was reported in France in late January. But if the results are confirmed, this study carried out by the University of Barcelona in collaboration with Aguas de Barcelona would change that chronology. Albert Bosch, leader of the work and president of the Spanish Society of Virology, believes that in those months those infected with Covid-19 se could have misdiagnosed a flu in primary care.
Surveillance network
As explained by the professor at the University of Barcelona in an interview with EL MUNDO, the wastewater analysis that has been carried out systematically for decades is being used as a tool to try to detect the virus early in wastewater with the aim of taking action against future waves of Covid-19. The study released now is based on the analysis of frozen water samples collected between January 2018 and December 2019, in which they found the SARS-CoV-2 genome in March 2019.
June 26, 2020
© Unidad Editorial, S.A.
A worker disinfects the lifeguard’s chair this Thursday on the Barceloneta beach
As studies of the pandemic progress, scientists are discovering the presence of the coronavirus in Europe at increasingly earlier dates. The analysis of the wastewater generated in cities has become one of the main clues to follow its trail.
The team from the University of Barcelona (UB) led by Professor Albert Bosch revealed a few days ago that it was already present in the sewage of the city of Barcelona since at least on January 15, 41 days before the declaration of the first case of Covid-19, which was notified on February 25. Now they have turned to older frozen samples and been in for a big surprise: have found traces of the SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater from Barcelona collected on March 12, 2019, long before a Covid-19 case was reported in any country, its results published provisionally in the repository Medrxiv, and therefore, without having undergone the usual scientific review, represent the earliest tests for the coronavirus.
Until a few months ago, the pandemic was believed to have been declared in the Chinese city of Wuhan in early 2019 and would have reached Europe in January. The first case was reported in France in late January. But if the results are confirmed, this study carried out by the University of Barcelona in collaboration with Aguas de Barcelona would change that chronology. Albert Bosch, leader of the work and president of the Spanish Society of Virology, believes that in those months those infected with Covid-19 se could have misdiagnosed a flu in primary care.
Surveillance network
As explained by the professor at the University of Barcelona in an interview with EL MUNDO, the wastewater analysis that has been carried out systematically for decades is being used as a tool to try to detect the virus early in wastewater with the aim of taking action against future waves of Covid-19. The study released now is based on the analysis of frozen water samples collected between January 2018 and December 2019, in which they found the SARS-CoV-2 genome in March 2019.
