PITTSFIELD, Mass. - The city of Pittsfield’s Department of Public Services and Utilities is studying wastewater in sewage as an early monitoring tool to detect when an increase of COVID-19 cases could be on the horizon.

Since June 2020, Pittsfield has received 74 sewage tests studying non-infectious RNA from the COVID-19 virus. The virus can be found in feces of both symptomatic and asymptomatic people. The results from the tests are used by the Pittsfield health department, school system and Mayor’s office to help inform any COVID-related decisions they need to make. The COVID-19 virus can be detected in the wastewater as much as a week ahead of a likely uptick in cases in the community. 

In November 2021, Pittsfield, the Massachusetts Department of Health and sewage analytics company, Biobot Analytics, started testing the city’s sewage three times a week.  Prior to November, the city was testing sewage roughly once a week or if clinical testing was showing high positivity numbers.

In an interview Tuesday, commissioner Ricardo Morales said, “If clinical testing was detecting high percent positivity, we would be testing. As soon as the state jumped in and started sponsoring and paying for tests, we saw the opportunity. So now we’re testing three times a week.”

The wastewater testing was able to alert them ahead of time about the most recent spike in cases.

In mid-December, the virus concentration in Pittsfield’s wastewater was one million copies per liter. By the end of the month, the virus concentration was at its highest point since the city began testing, at six million copies per liter. During that same time period, active COVID-19 cases more than doubled in Pittsfield, according to clinical test data.

Testing was scheduled to stop at the end of 2021, but the DPH has sponsored continuous testing three times a week through 2022, following the recent spike in COVID-19 cases across the state.

As of Monday, Jan. 3, Pittsfield was reporting 140 new COVID-19 cases per 100,000 people over a two-week time period. The city is currently administering around 500 tests per day with a 12.6% positivity rate.