wastewater surveillance

The U.S. is well into our summer Covid-19 surge: even the CDC’s wastewater dashboard now acknowledges that the country is facing high coronavirus activity. Yet most travel and gatherings continue without any precautions, making it easier for the latest variants to spread.

California and nearby West Coast states continue to bear the brunt of this summer’s Covid-19 surge so far, with high wastewater levels and increasing burden on the healthcare system. Data signals are mixed for other parts of the country as newer variants continue to spread.

Following the same trends from recent weeks, the U.S.’s expected summer Covid-19 wave continues to rise. According to wastewater surveillance and our limited healthcare system data, infections are rising quickly in California and other West Coast states, and progressing more slowly (but still increasing) in other regions.

Following last week’s trends, U.S. Covid-19 metrics continue to indicate that we may be at the beginning of a summer surge, thanks to our lack of collective safety measures combined with the latest variants. Unfortunately, the U.S. just lost another Covid-19 metric, as wastewater surveillance company Biobot Analytics announced that it is shutting down its…

Covid-19 levels continue to be on the lower side across the U.S., as the country is in a lull between surges. But mild metrics from the CDC hide the fact that even during a lull, thousands of people are getting sick daily. And new variants are on the horizon, leading some scientists to warn of…

All available Covid-19 data in the U.S. suggest that the country is at the high point of an intense winter surge. The JN.1 variant, the latest fast-spreading offshoot of Omicron, has intensified the spread from holiday travel and gatherings. Hospitalizations are currently following similar trends to last winter, but could rise more in the coming…

This winter’s Covid-19 surge continues in the U.S. While data aren’t yet available for the weeks after Christmas and New Years, wastewater surveillance suggests there could be more SARS-CoV-2 going around right now than reported at this time last year — with variant JN.1 fueling the spread from holiday travel and gatherings.