Boston, Massachusetts, Infectious Disease Experts See Drop in Coronavirus Wastewater Data
The Boston, Massachusetts, coronavirus wastewater data is plunging.
According to The Boston Herald, local infectious disease experts believe that the region may see a rapid decline in COVID-19 cases.
The predictive wastewater tracker skyrocketed around the holidays and virus cases shot up to record-high levels across Massachusetts. Currently, the wastewater tracker keeps trending downward.
“I think it’s a great sign, and hopefully it continues to go down and we won’t see another peak of cases,” said Todd Ellerin, director of infectious diseases at South Shore Health, reported The Boston Herald. “I’m cautiously optimistic about this.”
The latest data from the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority’s COVID-19 wastewater tracking shows the south of Boston region daily average is now 5,159 copies of viral RNA per milliliter. This is an approximately 55% drop from the peak level in early January, which was 11,446 copies of viral RNA per milliliter on Jan. 3.
According to the tracker, the northern region daily average is now 3,043 copies of viral RNA per milliliter, an approximate 65% decrease from the northern region’s peak, 8,644 copies of viral RNA per milliliter on Jan. 5.
“As things head in the right direction, we don’t want to give the virus unnecessary opportunities to come back,” Ellerin added, reported The Boston Herald. “We know what to do to defend against the virus, and we want to keep doing that as things decline. We don’t want to relax our guards, especially in the middle of winter.”
Ellerin adds that people still need to get vaccinated, boosted and mask up.
Other states are seeing the same trend. For instance, data from the Wisconsin Department of Health Services’ Coronavirus Wastewater Monitoring Network page shows a considerable decline in the virus’ presence in Madison’s sewage system, reported Channel3000 News.
