Twice a week, the Snyderville Basin Water Reclamation District collects wastewater samples from its two treatment plants, along with sites in Wasatch County. These samples are sent to the Utah Public Health Lab, where scientists test for the presence of SARS-CoV-2 — the virus behind COVID-19.
Mike Luers, the water district’s executive director said virus levels have jumped significantly.
“In the last couple weeks, the results have shown that the virus has increased dramatically, not only here in Summit County, but also Wasatch County,” Luers said on the KPCW “Local News Hour” Wednesday, Aug. 20. And the numbers for Summit County last week are what we call ‘very elevated.’ And a couple of sites in Heber this last sampling, which was done on the [Aug.] 13th, they're also very elevated. So, things have increased and change quite a bit compared to what we've have been seeing.”
The samples are collected as the wastewater flows into the treatment plant and before sanitation occurs. The data is then made available to federal, state and local public health agencies as well as to the public through the Utah Dept. of Health and Human Services dashboard.
Luers said the Utah Department of Health and Human Services analyzes the samples to determine which variants are circulating. The latest strain is known as "Stratus," and like previous versions, symptoms vary widely.
“Certainly, it can be severe,” he said. “And I happen to know some folks that have gotten COVID and gotten pretty sick recently. So, it's not something that you just want to completely ignore, that's for sure.”
Luers said vaccination doesn’t affect the wastewater data. And in addition to COVID, the state is now testing the same samples for signs of measles.
“The health department has taken our samples, and once a week we look for measles, and thus far, as far as I'm aware, we have not had any positive results for measles.”
Even with some public health budget cuts, Luers expects the wastewater testing to continue because it’s inexpensive and provides a broad snapshot of community health.
