This week, the health department in New York City, where I live, announced that they’d identified new variant BA.2.86 in the city’s wastewater. I covered the news for local outlet Gothamist/WNYC, and the story got me thinking about how important wastewater surveillance has become for tracking variants.
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Nationally, the COVID-19 situation in the U.S. is similar to where we’ve been for the last few weeks. Major metrics (such as we have them) show an overall plateau in disease spread. Wastewater trends in a few places suggest a summer surge might be coming, but it’s hard to say for sure.
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The COVID-19 plateau of the last few weeks continues at the national level, though experts are concerned that a summer surge could occur in parts of the country. Wastewater surveillance and testing data are indicating potential increases in the New York City region.
Read MorePolitical leaders in New York State recently ended a policy requiring masks in healthcare settings. In response to the change, local advocacy organization Mandate Masks NY has compiled a list of hospitals and healthcare centers in New York that are still maintaining mask requirements independently of the state policy.
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For several days now, the New York City Department of Education’s COVID-19 case map has had a significant error: on this dashboard, a number of schools are erroneously located in Colombia. Like, the South American country.
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My second big story this week is a detailed report about New York City’s wastewater surveillance program, highlighting its lack of transparency. I’m particularly excited to share this one with NYC-based readers, as it uncovers a public program that’s been running under our feet for nearly three years.
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The COVID-19 Data Dispatch does not endorse the New York MTA’s newly-relaxed mask guidance on pubic transit.
Read MoreMany of the public health failures we saw early in the COVID-19 crisis are now being repeated with monkeypox—which the WHO just declared a global health emergency.
Read MoreSources and updates for the week of July 24 include drug overdose deaths, COVID-19 testing options, a Congressional hearing on Long COVID, and more.
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New York City has been closing PCR testing sites, even as the city faced a major Omicron resurgence this spring. The trends I found in a local story—and the pushback that the piece received from city health officials—are pretty indicative of the national state of COVID-19 testing right now.
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