A Novel Approach to Face Early Pandemics Using QUBO Models

We propose a novel approach for choosing sampling points on a wastewater network in order to detect SARS-CoV-2 remnants present in human feces.¹¹Study part of the project “WBE-COVID-A new wastewater based epidemiology (WBE) system to track COVID-19” Interreg V-A Cooperation Program “Italy-Switzerland 2014-2020” CUP E29J22001170004. We acknowledge ARPA-Piemonte, CNR-Verbania, AcquaNovara.VCO (IT) for pivotal support. We formulate the problem as OUBO and run a simulation on the D-wave hybrid solver.

I. Introduction

The Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is caused by SARS-CoV-2, a highly infectious virus, which not only resides in human lungs, but can also be found in other parts of the human body, including the intestine. As a result, COVID genetic remnants can be found in human feces [1], [2]. Thus, it turns out that much of the health conditions of a community can be determined by monitoring raw waters in sewage systems.