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By KRYS'TAL GRIFFIN, The Delaware News Journal 
 NEW CASTLE, Del. (AP) — New Castle County’s new approach to tracking coronavirus estimates the amount of positive cases is more widespread than state testing has revealed.
 The strategy stems from a partnership between New Castle County Public Works and a Massachusetts Institute of Technology startup called Biobot Analytics. The startup searches wastewater samples for fragments of COVID-19 to estimate how many people in an area have the virus.
 Back in mid-April, samples from the Wilmington Wastewater Treatment Plant, which catches sewage from over 400,000 people across New Castle County, were sent to MIT for analysis by Biobot. The April 14 sample showed a large disparity between the number of laboratory-confirmed cases and the number of infected individuals estimated by Biobot.
 Since then, New Castle County has created a web page that explains what Biobot has found in the area. The data provides the estimated amount of COVID-19 cases identified in a particular sampling site, and the estimated prevalence rate (the estimated cases as a percentage of the population).
 The Delaware.Gov Coronavirus Data Dashboard shows the total number of positive cases for New Castle County reached 5,489 as of June 26.
 According to Biobot estimates using the sewer data from the region, New Castle County had 28,665 positive cases as of June 24. This number is over five times greater than what is listed on the state of Delaware’s official website.
 The New Castle/Red Lion/Wrangle Hill area has an estimated 4,200 cases, equaling 11% of the population for the area. The Greenville/Elsmere/Newport area follows with an estimated 2,100 cases, equaling 8% of the area’s population.
 The blue areas, including the Northern New Castle County Aggregate Sewer System, the Bear/Glasgow/Churchmans region and the area south of the Canal, are estimated to have 20,690 cases altogether, equaling 9.5% of their combined populations.
 The remaining test sites highlighted in purple respectively have between 20 and 1,000 estimated cases, leaving Port Penn and the Greater Newark/Pike Creek/Hockessin area with no estimated cases and a 0% prevalence rate.
 New Castle County Executive Matt Meyer said the three goals of the Biobot partnership are to estimate how many people have the virus; determine whether the number of cases is increasing or decreasing; and figure out where hotspots are located.
 Two things New Castle County officials want to learn from using the wastewater testing are where the county is on the case curve, meaning how many cases there are week to week, and where in the county those concentrations of cases are located.
 Although the sewer data does not provide a definitive answer, it is still helpful in providing valuable data points, according to officials. The county has around 100 treatment substations across the county, and since the initial wastewater sample two months ago, about 12 of them have been focused on for testing.
 Northern shoveler ducks during the Delmarva Ornithological Society’s annual Christmas Bird Count at the City of Wilmington’s wastewater treatment facility. 
 By getting a reading from these substations, officials can approximate the number of cases in a given area based on the stool sampling. If there is an outbreak in a location and it is not detected for a few months, a significant number of people could lose their lives, Meyer said, but lives could be saved if an outbreak is identified sooner.
 “Of course we don’t have the capability to test every single person in the county using our sewer system every week,” Meyer said. “But this gives us some measure and it is very helpful as an early indicator.”
 If a substation in a certain area shows a high reading, this data can be used to center attention on the location with more testing sites and encouraging people to quarantine to limit the spread. Without sewer monitoring, it would take three or four weeks for the same statistics to arise from standard testing practices.
 The wastewater samples have already helped officials decide where to place saliva testing sites for coronavirus. So far, officials have created 10 drive-by testing locations across the county that move around each week. They are free and open to any member of the public, and are done in partnership with the Delaware Division of Public Health and the Delaware Emergency Management Agency.
 Aside from COVID testing, officials have used the sewer data to make determinations about what to do with parks, libraries and various other facilities.
 The Force Main is the main sewage line in New Castle County. The county is testing sewage to try to respond more quickly to coronavirus outbreaks.
 As restrictions are loosened, the data can be used to see if the reopening leads to an increase of cases in a given area.
 “Accurate early detection saves lives,” Meyer said.

Delaware officials find a COVID-19 gold mine — in sewers