The rollout of sewage testing for SARS-CoV-2 across the country needs to be sped up ahead of an impending second wave of infections, a leading infectious diseases clinician says.

Professor Peter Collignon, a doctor and microbiologist at the Australian National University medical school in Canberra, has warned that the best chance of containing a resurgence of infection is to have measures such as wastewater monitoring in place.

“One of the things we need to do to make sure it is low-risk is testing sewage for this virus — because that tests the whole community,” he told a Science Media Centre briefing earlier this week.

“It’s still the best way of capturing everybody rather than only the people who turn up for testing.”