Boston Sewage Coronavirus At Lowest Level In A Month
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BOSTON — Coronavirus in the Boston-area wastewater is at its lowest level in a month, according to the latest data published Friday by Cambridge-based epidemiology firm Biobot Analytics.
The amount of viral RNA in Deer Island Treatment Plant sewage still remains above the pre-omicron maximum, but it peaked from Jan. 2-5 and began to fall as quickly as it rose.
The fall continued in a new sample taken Thursday, according to Biobot data. The weekly average is now the lowest it has been since this point in December.
The plant serves 43 communities in greater Boston. Samples of wastewater are taken three to seven times a week, according to the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority.
The samples are split between the authority's "North System" and "South System," which each contain part of Boston and surrounding communities. A map of the North and South systems is available here.
>>MA Town-By-Town Coronavirus: Average Case Count Below 10K
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the wastewater metric "can provide information on changes in total SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) infection in the community contributing to that wastewater treatment plant." In other words, an increased presence of COVID-19 in wastewater from showers, sinks and toilets can indicate an increased infection rate in the communities where the wastewater comes from.
"Every time an infected person uses the toilet, they're flushing this information down the toilet, where it's collecting and aggregating and mixing with poop from thousands of other people," Newsha Ghaeli, a co-founder and president of Biobot Analytics, told NBC News.
The wastewater data has predicted trends in other coronavirus metrics in recent weeks, with the positive rate, case counts and even hospitalizations now also showing the state is over the worst of the omicron surge.
This article originally appeared on the Boston Patch
