Health officials reported Sunday that the Point Loma neighborhood in San Diego has reached the highest concentration of COVID-19 viral load in wastewater since August 2022.
A team led by Scripps Research scientists has been awarded a contract by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) in support of one of the largest SARS-CoV-2 surveillance programs in the United States.
An ongoing program that monitors wastewater for the presence of SARS-CoV-2 and which has effectively predicted subsequent surges in COVID-19 cases in San Diego has been expanded to detect the presence of monkeypox.
It can be a bit smellier than other ways of monitoring COVID-19, but analyzing wastewater is a cheaper, faster and more accurate way for public health officials and researchers to detect rising cases.