With Christmas just around the corner, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has revealed the states with the highest COVID-19 levels in their wastewater.
The CDC began tracking levels of COVID-19 in wastewater—including sewage—at the beginning of the pandemic, as it captures data from everyone who uses the wastewater system, including those who are asymptomatic, untested, or unreported cases.
This gives a more accurate picture of virus spread in a community than only relying on COVID testing.
Wastewater samples can be analyzed for genetic material to detect the presence of specific variants of the virus, helping track their spread.
For the week between December 01 and December 07, 2024, six states reported "very high" wastewater levels of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.
These states included Arizona, New Mexico, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, and South Dakota.
The week before, between November 24 and November 30, only New Mexico had "very high" levels of the virus present.
However, Missouri and South Dakota have "limited coverage" for this week's data, which means that their viral activity is "based on a small part (less than 5 percent) of the population and may not represent viral activity levels for the entire state or territory," the CDC explains.
Arkansas, Idaho, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Wyoming all had "high" levels of the virus for this most recent period, while Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Iowa, Maryland, Michigan, Oklahoma, Utah, West Virginia, Wisconsin and D.C. all had "moderate" levels.
Fifteen states had "low" levels of SARS-CoV-2, and six states had "minimal" levels present in wastewater. Mississippi also had "limited coverage" for this week, while North Dakota reported no data.
"Wastewater (sewage) can be tested to detect traces of infectious diseases circulating in a community, even if people don't have symptoms," the CDC explains.
"You can use these data as an early warning that levels of infections may be increasing or decreasing in your community."
The reported viral activity may not be totally representative of levels of the virus in each community, however, as each state has a different number of wastewater sampling sites.
"States and territories may have a higher density of sampling sites in certain geographic areas, so the median wastewater viral activity level may not represent the wastewater viral activity level for every community in the state or territory," the CDC said.
COVID-19 has many variants. During the two weeks before December 7, the KP.3.1.1 variant made up 39 percent of COVID-19 variants in U.S. wastewater, while the XEC variant made up 16 percent. The MC.1 variant comprised 12 percent, KP.3 made up 15 percent, and "other" made up 19 percent.
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