San Luis, Arizona – The City of San Luis would like to share with residents that the city is participating in the University of Arizona Covid-19 Early Warning Sewage Testing Pilot Project. This is a community protection and early warning and response program.
Sewage testing helps health professionals understand when, if, and how much Covid-19 is present in a certain area’s population and provides an early warning of a potential outbreak. The presence of Covid-19 shows up in sewage days before people begin to show symptoms.
Sewage water is being sampled two (2) times per week at each of the sewage treatment plants in the City of San Luis. In the event that Covid-19 concentrations increase to cause a concern additional samples will be collected and analyzed to narrow down and identify the affected area.
The objective is that by getting early warning of rising incidence in a targeted area, the city will take the appropriate safety measures by alerting the public and providing additional Covid-19 testing that will slow the spread.
“The City of San Luis decided to be a part of the University of Arizona early warning sewage testing project to ensure we are doing our best to help keep our community safe,” stated Mayor Gerardo Sanchez. “It is important to be a part of this project because it has proven to be very effective in other cities,” he concluded.
For more information about this topic, or to schedule a meeting with the City of San Luis Public Affairs Office, please call us (928) 341-8520 or email us at publicrelations@sanluisaz.gov.