Central Florida’s leaders have been turning to an unexpected place for clues on the direction of the COVID-19 pandemic: Our toilets.What they are seeing has them worried. The level of COVID-19 viral components detected in sewage has been climbing steadily since the Fourth of July holiday and suggests the outbreak could grow worse in the days ahead.

Wastewater is also showing that the highly transmissible delta variant has become the predominant strain of the virus circulating in the community.“I am concerned,” said Ed Torres, director of Orange County Utilities. “The hospitals are already starting to reach limits, and I know looking at the data and based on experience there is more to come.”

Sewage surveillance has been likened to a COVID-19 Doppler radar that can provide an advance warning of new cases and hospitalizations . . .

Read the full story by Skyler Swisher at the Orlando Sentinel.

 

Shayna Spiwak, a plant Specialist for Orange County Utilities, collects a sample as part of a program to monitor the presence of COVID-19 viral fragments in wastewater. (Handout photo from Orange County Utilities)
Shayna Spiwak, a plant Specialist for Orange County Utilities, collects a sample as part of a program to monitor the presence of COVID-19 viral fragments in wastewater. (Handout photo from Orange County Utilities)