NATIONWIDE -- In addition to contact tracing, there may be another way for researchers to track the presence of COVID-19 in a given community.

According a Facebook video posted by the Southern Nevada Water Authority, research it’s conducting confirms that genetic markers of COVID-19 can be found in wastewater prior to treatment.

Those markers are removed during the treatment process.

In the video, SNWA Principal Research Scientist River Mountains Treatment Facility Daniel Gerrity points out that the presence of genetic markers doesn’t necessarily indicate the presence of an infectious virus in the wastewater, but the COVID-19 signal is present. 

In addition to indicating that SNWA treatment eliminates the COVID-19 fingerprint, Gerrity said the accumulation of additional data will be beneficial in two ways.

It may be possible to determine from wastewater the overall level of disease in a given community, in this case Southern Nevada. That may determine how many symptomatic and asymptomatic people were present. The process is known as wastewater epidemiology.

Secondly, Gerrity said the research may prove beneficial as an early warning system. The current signal will diminish; however, if it starts trending up again, it will serve as a warning that something is happening in a community.