Miami-Dade’s Sewage Samples Show Increase In COVID-19 Levels: County
MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, FL — An increase in COVID-19 concentrations in Miami-Dade County’s wastewater in recent weeks indicate an uptick in the virus in the area.
During the peak spread of the virus’ highly contagious omicron variant in January, there were more than 10 million virus copies in sewage samples from Miami, Jose Cueto, deputy director of operations for the city’s sewer and water department, told CBS Miami.
While wastewater samples aren’t showing numbers quite that high now, they’re on the rise in South Florida.
“We’re about 15 times higher from the low still 5 and 10 percent of the peak back in January during omicron,” Cueto said.
Miami-Dade County Water & Sewer Department’s Central District treatment plant has seen the biggest jump in COVID-19 concentration in wastewater since early March.
On March 3, there were about 43,000 copies of the virus per liter, according to the county’s April 20 Wastewater Surveillance for COVID-19 report. By April 14, that number skyrocketed to more than 630,000 copies.
This number has also jumped in the South District treatment plant, where about 43,000 virus copies were found in wastewater on Feb. 27. On April 10, more than 300,000 copies were found.
In the South District treatment plant, the presence of coronavirus hasn’t changed as drastically in recent months. On March 2, about 146,000 copies were found in wastewater treated there, while about 193,000 copies were reported on April 13.
Data from the Florida Department of Health shows that COVID-19 cases are on the rise in South Florida and across the state.
From April 15-21, 6,170 new cases and a 6.5 percent new cases positivity rate were reported in Miami-Dade County, according to the FDOH COVID-19 Weekly Situation Report. Statewide, 20,860 new cases and a 6.1 percent new case positivity rate were reported during this period.
About a month earlier, from March 18-24, just 1,725 new cases and a 1.7 percent new case positivity rate were reported in Miami-Dade County.
County leaders and medical professionals are watching the rise in cases carefully.
“Our numbers are going up, but hospitalizations have not,” Roy Coley, the county’s director of the Waster and Sewer Department, told the Miami Herald. “Everyone is still figuring out what it means.”
The chief medical officer for Jackson Health, Peter Paige, said the number of COVID-19 copies in wastewater can indicate the number of future cases an area might see, as people with the virus shed particles days before their symptoms appear.
“If you can see it four or five days before symptoms develop or a positive test, that can give you a little more time to be proactive if you’re concerned about mitigation strategies around public health to try and decrease the risk of transmission,” he told the Herald.
Miami-Dade’s Sewage Samples Show Increase In COVID-19 Levels: County originally appeared on the Miami Patch
