The wastewater at three of Maine’s public university campuses is showing no signs so far of a coming COVID-19 outbreak.
Wastewater samples collected from the University of Maine in Orono, the University of Southern Maine’s Gorham campus and the University of Maine at Fort Kent have all come back negative as the fall semester has begun, according to the University of Maine System.
The weekly testing of wastewater at the three campuses that house more than three-quarters of the university system’s resident students is part of the system’s strategy for preventing and containing COVID-19 while students are on campus this fall.
The strategy has also involved testing students moving into campus dorms, out-of-state students and other selected groups in the first weeks of the fall semester. In addition, the university system will test about 2,000 randomly selected students and employees every 10 days through the semester until students leave campus before Thanksgiving and continue the semester remotely.
But wastewater can carry signs of the virus because people can start shedding the virus in their stool before they develop symptoms, making it a way to detect outbreaks early.
At Saint Joseph’s College in Standish, the presence of the virus in wastewater was the first sign of a COVID-19 outbreak on campus earlier this month, according to Maine Public. Nine students tested positive and the college temporarily shifted to remote instruction as a result.
The university system is testing wastewater at campuses that rely on their own wastewater infrastructure, rather than on local municipal wastewater systems.
While more than a dozen people have tested positive for the coronavirus as part of the University of Maine System’s virus testing, the system currently has one acti ve case.
The system has recorded 13 positive tests out of 15,600 given.