Answer Woman: Does Buncombe County still test wastewater for COVID-19 levels?
ASHEVILLE - Today's burning question addresses what data Buncombe County is still collecting on COVID-19 levels in the community — and what data it has stopped gathering altogether. Do you have a question for Answer Man or Answer Woman? Email Executive Editor Karen Chávez at KChavez@citizentimes.com, and your question could appear in an upcoming column.
Question: Is the metropolitan sewerage district monitoring wastewater to measure the levels of COVID-19 in the community? If so, what are their findings compared to previous points in time?
Answer: In short, yes, COVID-19 levels in sewage are still monitored and recorded in Buncombe County, even while other information is no longer updated by the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services. To give a more thorough answer, let’s break it down.
Do they do all the testing on site, or do they send samples out to be analyzed by a lab somewhere?
According to Director of Operations and Pretreatment at the Metropolitan Sewerage District of Buncombe County Bart Farmer, weekly wastewater samples are taken and sent to the NCDHHS for analysis.
Findings compared to previous points in time?
On the NCDHHS dashboard, you can select the entire state of NC, or any watershed of your choice including the Buncombe district. As of July 19, the most recently recorded date, there were 18.04 million viral gene copies per person recorded. For comparison, there were roughly 51 million copies during the week of Jan. 15, the week with the highest recorded cases on the site.
Are they looking for DNA markers and can they determine what variety of the COVID-19 virus they're finding?
The Buncombe sewerage district does monitor different varieties of COVID-19. Farmer told the Citizen Times that as per the most recent data compilation, main varieties detected were BQ1.1, BQ.1, B.1.1.529, BA.5, BA.2.
Do they monitor for any other types of diseases that might show up in the wastewater?
Farmer said they do not yet monitor for other types of diseases, but the idea of testing for monkeypox, polio and bird flu has been suggested several times.
“They're looking at how well this COVID sampling is working for a tracking tool before they branch out to other diseases,” Farmer said.
More information
While sewage is still tested for the virus, many COVID-19 information dashboards for Buncombe County are no longer updated. Previously collected information is still available in archival databases, however. Vaccine rates and cases and deaths are two archival dashboards with ample information.
Last updated in April, vaccine rates showed that 71% of all Asheville residents had received at least one vaccine, and 68% had received a full “initial series.” Booster rates showed 65% had at least one booster, while 33% had the updated booster.
The final updates to the cases and deaths page were made on May 10. The final full record from April 29 showed 82 total weekly cases, with 16 reinfection cases. Final full data from April 22 showed two deaths in total that week.
There is also another page that is still updated. COVID-19 hospitalization data, last updated July 22, indicated that Mountain Area Healthcare Preparedness Coalition admitted two new ICU patients for COVID-19 that week, bringing the total number of patients in the ICU for the virus to 15.
For further information take a look at the NCDHHS dashboards.
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Iris Seaton is a news intern for the Asheville Citizen Times, part of the USA TODAY Network. Please support local, daily journalism with a subscription to the Citizen Times.
This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: Answer Woman: Does Buncombe County still test wastewater for COVID-19?
