“This year’s COVID-19 wave is coming earlier than last year, which occurred in late August/early September.”
Emergency room visits, hospitalizations and deaths are also ticking up, although not to the same extent as infections, according to the CDC’s COVID dashboard.
The CDC’s wastewater data closely aligns with what they’re seeing at the nationwide WastewaterSCAN network, too.
Instead, the nation is largely relying on wastewater levels to follow numbers of new cases.
This story has been updated to include the latest wastewater surveillance data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The time to dust off the air purifiers and face masks may have come.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s wastewater dashboard indicates that the country is currently experiencing a significant COVID-19 wave, with viral activity levels in wastewater at their highest point for a summer surge since July 2022.
On August 10, the CDC’s gauge of the country’s COVID-19 viral activity in wastewater increased to 8.82, just below the peak of 9.56 in July 2022. The most current data is unfinished and subject to change, according to the CDC. It had reached 1.36 prior to its ascent once more in May.
According to an email from Dr. Jonathan Yoder, deputy director of the CDC’s Wastewater Surveillance Program, “the COVID-19 wastewater viral activity level is very high nationally, with the highest levels in the Western US region.”. “Compared to last year, when it happened in late August or early September, the COVID-19 wave this year is arriving earlier. “.
According to the CDC’s COVID dashboard, ER visits, hospital stays, and fatalities are also rising, though not as quickly as infections. Around 4 COVID hospitalizations for every 100,000 people in a given area were reported on the CDC’s dashboard as of the end of July. This is an increase from the lowest number since the pandemic started in May, which was approximately 1 hospitalization for every 100,000 people.
Also in close agreement with the findings of the national WastewaterSCAN network is the wastewater data provided by the CDC.”.
“This surge is extremely noteworthy. The amounts are extremely elevated. They’re at their highest points ever recorded during a summer wave, according to Dr. Marlene Wolfe, program director for WastewaterSCAN and an assistant professor of environmental health and public health at Emory University. Currently, SARS-CoV-2 is found in all samples taken nationwide, 100 percent of which are positive. “.
The number of sites that WastewaterSCAN monitors has changed over time, with monitoring having started in early 2022.
According to Dr. Alexandria Boehm, program director for WastewaterSCAN and a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Stanford University, “despite these changes, it’s notable that levels right now for WastewaterSCAN are much higher than previous summer peaks and yet still below the average concentrations at the height of the winter peaks in 2023, 2022, and 2021.”.
There are no longer trustworthy estimations of the number of new infections occurring in the US on a daily or weekly basis, and health officials are not monitoring the coronavirus as closely as they were during the public health emergency. Rather, the country mostly depends on wastewater levels to track the quantity of new cases.
According to Wolfe, the quantity of virus in wastewater doesn’t exactly match the quantity of infections. This is due to the fact that a variety of factors can affect the amount of virus present in wastewater, such as the volume of water passing through the sewage system during sampling and the amount of virus that individuals may be excreting of a particular variant. Nevertheless, she notes that sampling over time has demonstrated a strong correlation between the quantity of virus in the local wastewater and the number of infected individuals in a given area.
“The precise number of additional cases that may exist in comparison to past years is uncertain, as some of those modifications may have occurred in the virus in the regions that we’re monitoring,” the spokesperson stated.
Three novel strains of the virus that have sufficiently diverged from their parent strain, JN, and the population’s declining immunity are the main causes of the increase in cases. 1. To evade our antibodies’ fast neutralizing action.
In many areas of the US, cases are also rising right before students return to school, which presents ample opportunity for the virus to proliferate.
When this surge will peak and begin to taper off is unknown.
“The amount of wastewater produced in Houston, Texas, is still high and is not going down. According to Dr. Peter Hotez, director of Texas Children’s Hospital’s Center for Vaccine Development and an expert in infectious diseases, “they have been at a high level for a few weeks now.
The increase in cases has also occurred before the new COVID-19 vaccine, which is intended to provide stronger defense against the novel strains, is available, which may aid in containing the virus’s spread.
“Considering how quickly COVID is spreading, it’s a little disappointing that these are not available right now,” Hotez stated.
The most recent COVID-19 vaccine modifications have not yet received approval from the US Food and Drug Administration, but experts have heard that Pfizer, Moderna, and Novavax should have updated shots available in the upcoming weeks.
The FDA instructed manufacturers to update their COVID vaccines for the fall to more closely match the variants that were causing illnesses in June, as part of its routine review process for the necessity of changes to the shots.
Vanderbilt University infectious disease expert Dr. William Schaffner said, “We keep hearing rumors that it will be here by the end of September, so we shouldn’t have to wait too long.”.
Getting that vaccine as soon as it’s available is the best thing people can do in terms of their individual risk, according to Hotez.
If you test positive, seek out the antiviral drug Paxlovid. “Next, of course, is a good N95 or KN95 mask when you are in crowded indoor areas,” Hotez stated. To determine whether any coughs or runny noses are being brought on by the coronavirus, it is therefore a good idea to stock up on COVID-19 tests.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s most recent wastewater surveillance data has been added to this story.
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