Kansas and Missouri are two of 27 states where, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, COVID-19 levels in wastewater are currently “very high.”
Wastewater testing is being used as a tool to track potential outbreaks and trends. While watershed data cannot tell researchers how many people are infected with COVID-19, the virus can be detected in a person’s waste. before they are symptomatic.
“It is a very meaningful and useful method to determine how high the infection rates are in a community,” said Mark JohnsonProfessor of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology at the University of Missouri.
Johnson is heavily involved in the Sewershed Surveillance Project, a collaborative effort to monitor COVID-19 levels in Missouri by testing and tracking wastewater data from the state’s watersheds.
Johnson said fewer people are being tested for COVID by their doctors or in clinics since the pandemic. He said wastewater data could help fill those gaps.
“Wastewater is just a real reality check,” Johnson said. “It gives you a real indication of whether (COVID) is in the community and whether it is increasing, regardless of what is being reported.”
The CDC assesses COVID in wastewater at six levels, from “insufficient data” or “minimal” to “very high.” In Kansas and Missouri, the levels are currently “very high.”
“That means if you feel like you have COVID, you probably have COVID,” Johnson said. “It’s there, it’s circulating. People are exposed to it.”
In an email to Kansas News Service, a spokesperson for the Kansas Department of Health and Environment said there are 13 wastewater treatment plants in Kansas that regularly report wastewater data to the CDC. Since July, the spokesperson said, COVID has been detected at all of the plants in Kansas.
“If we look at the data, we can see that current wastewater volumes are about two-thirds of what they were during the 2023 winter holidays,” the spokesperson said. “This means that although many people are currently infected with COVID-19, there are probably still fewer infected people than during the holidays.”
The KDHE spokesperson said the high numbers are concerning, but people can get vaccinated to gain immunity against variants of the virus.
“Because these waves are associated with variants to which people become immune after vaccination or infection, the waves are self-limiting and we are already seeing levels of SARS-CoV-2 stagnating and even declining in some places in Kansas,” the spokesperson said.
Johnson said COVID levels were nowhere near as high as in previous major outbreaks, such as the Omicron variant of the virus reached the USA in 2021. However, he said COVID levels are now nearly the highest he’s seen all year, approaching the highest in the past two years.
Johnson said he did not know why COVID was surging so much right now. He said unlike flu and other respiratory illnesses, which tend to be seasonal, COVID has proven it can strike at any time of year.
One possibility is that people’s immunity is waning, he said.
“We’ve seen the virus before, but it was a while ago. And that’s why our immunity to it is waning,” Johnson said. Johnson, who is not a doctor, said he thinks it’s wise for people to get vaccinated against the coronavirus or receive a booster shot. Research has shown the vaccines help reduce the risk of severe illness or death from COVID-19.
The CDC recently released an updated vaccine for COVID-19. Vaccination is recommended for everyone aged 6 months and older.
Bek Shackelford-Nwanganga reports on inequalities and access to health care for the Kansas News Service. You can reach her at [email protected].
The Kansas News Service is a collaboration of KCUR, Kansas Public Radio, KMUW and High Plains Public Radio with a focus on health, the social determinants of health and their connection to public policy.
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