Scientists discovered early in the pandemic that infected people "shed" the virus in their faeces. Further research concluded that wastewater sampling could provide a signal of a coronavirus outbreak up to a week earlier than medical testing.

The Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs says this has begun at 44 wastewater treatment sites. A Defra spokesperson said the government was working with scientists, water companies and the devolved governments in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

The scientists are working to fine-tune and reproduce this test before it can be rolled out as part of a Covid-19 alert system. Dr Singer pointed out that this wastewater epidemiology is a very "messy science"; by its nature, wastewater contains a lot of contaminants and samples vary widely, which makes it tricky to develop a one-size-fits all standard, accurate test.

There are problems to be solved in order to maximise the accuracy and value of a sewage-based surveillance system: the propensity of the virus to break up when it is in water; the effect on the result of other contaminants; and how many sampling points need to be included in a UK-wide network in order to build up a useful picture of the outbreak.

OMG is nothing sacred?! Even our poo is being tracked

They will eventually make it law for us all to be microchipped.
The chips will have trackers in them.

Then later on still, the chips will be bugged so they can listen in to our conversations.

That's my prophecy for the future.
We will all be controlled in every way.

The future is already here - the mobile phone and voice assistants ......