TRACE-COVID-19, the groundbreaking Oregon State University project to determine community prevalence of the novel coronavirus, is expanding to include two days of sampling in Bend.
Random door-to-door sampling in 30 Bend neighborhoods will occur May 30-31 as a joint effort of OSU-Cascades, OSU faculty researchers in Corvallis and Deschutes County Health Services.
“As Bend and other Oregon communities reopen, it is important that we have baseline information regarding the prevalence of COVID-19 in our communities,” said Becky Johnson, OSU-Cascades vice president.
“This collaborative effort to sample the Bend community will give us needed real-time information as testing nationally and in Oregon has been focused on those with symptoms of COVID-19. It’s likely that some people who have the virus display no symptoms, and yet they may have been inadvertently involved in spreading the disease. With prevalence data from TRACE and other tests and studies, we can better manage COVID-19 in our community and begin to look forward as we reopen our communities and economy,” Johnson said.
TRACE team leaders say that to study the prevalence of COVID-19 within a community, it is important to randomly sample community residents in a defined geography, not just volunteers who seek to be studied or residents of other nearby communities.
A complementary study of Bend wastewater, under the direction of researchers from the OSU College of Engineering, will occur the same two days. Public works staff from the city of Bend will gather multiple sewage samples in which Oregon State researchers will look for genetic material from SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.
As with TRACE-COVID-19 – short for Team-based Rapid Assessment of Community-Level Coronavirus Epidemics – the goal of the wastewater study is to paint a picture of the virus’ prevalence within a community. The virus cannot survive as a pathogenic agent in wastewater, but infected people will pass detectable genetic components of the virus into the sewer system, thereby providing a complementary indication of how extensive COVID-19 has been in a community.
“This combined approach of increased testing of asymptomatic individuals and wastewater early-signal surveillance for COVID19 should provide very helpful insights for our local management of this epidemic,” said Dr. George A. Conway, Deschutes County health director.
TRACE-COVID-19 was developed by five OSU colleges in partnership with the Benton County Health Department. Sampling began in Corvallis the weekend of April 25-26 and continued the subsequent two weekends.
“We’re excited to broaden the scope of TRACE by partnering with the Bend community and Deschutes County,” said project leader Ben Dalziel, an assistant professor in the OSU College of Science. “Having a near-real-time estimate of how many people are infected is something I think many communities may find helpful during reopening. We hope to enable TRACE to partner with other Oregon communities as we receive additional funding.”
TRACE sampling in Bend is being funded by a grant from PacificSource Health Plans, and the sampling study was initiated in Corvallis by funding from OSU and the David and Lucile Packard Foundation.
“We are pleased to lend our support to this critical study and the ongoing efforts of OSU and their partners to help safeguard our local communities, including Central Oregon and Corvallis,” said Ken Provencher, president and chief executive officer of PacificSource.
The next weekend of Corvallis sampling will take place in June and will help determine if easing of stay-at-home orders has led to a change in the prevalence of the virus in the Corvallis community, TRACE leaders say.
