UofL researchers testing wastewater samples for omicron variant

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- University of Louisville researchers are examining wastewater samples for COVID-19 and are boosting efforts in wake of the omicron variant.

The director of UofL’s Center for Healthy Air, Water and Soil, Ted Smith said his team has been monitoring variants for nine months at 17 locations around Louisville.

The group is working to detect the presence of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus by sequencing specific regions of the viral genome.

“We've been doing that since February of 2021 when the virus really started mutating into these different strains," said Smith.

The U.S. reported its first omicron case on Dec. 1, but as of Sunday, there has been no indication of the variant in Louisville’s wastewater.

Smith says that comes with a word of caution.

"What is unknown is how sick people become once infected, and of course we are all eager to know just how dangerous it is," said Smith, who adds while much is unclear about omicron its transmissibility is not.

"If you look at the data out of South Africa it seems to be out competing delta – meaning there are more people getting it,” Smith said. “Quickly getting infected with this omicron variant.”

Louisville MSD treats 153 million gallons of wastewater in Jefferson County before its released back into the waterways. The city water treatment service pulled samples for UofL researchers on Monday finding thousands of copies of the virus per mL of wastewater— all samples of the delta variant.

"Because of this omicron variant we're increasing to daily testing for the next two weeks at one of our large wastewater treatment plants here in Louisville," Smith added.

Overall, COVID-19 cases are still on the rise across Louisville. According to a state map that shows the cumulative number of COVID-19 cases, since the pandemic started, a county marked in red indicates 25 incidents per 100,000 residents.

Jefferson County has 35.1 per 100,000 residents and remains in the red as of Sunday night.

With cases updated weekly, the latest COVID data shows that 2,813 new cases were reported, and 64 more people have died.

“In the past we found these variants before clinical cases were discovered,” said Smith. “The good news— we’ve never seen this particular (omicron) set of mutations in our city, and we can look at our entire library and we don’t see any sign of it.”

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