Hyperion Water Reclamation Plant (Photo – Erik Avila, ladwp)
L.A. County Wastewater Surveillance Shows Leveling Off, Plateauing, in Viral Concentrations.
By News Desk
More individuals are now using over-the-counter (OTC) tests to assess COVID infections. The County COVID case rate, which doesn’t include the results from OTC tests, may now underestimate the level of transmission.
Fortunately, the County’s Health Department is able to utilize wastewater surveillance to detect significant changes in viral loads or new variants. Presently, there are four wastewater treatment plants that perform viral surveillance for SARS-CoV-2.
Hyperion Water Reclamation Plant and the Joint Water Pollution Control Plant, serve about 7.5 million LA County residents across most of the county. At the Hyperion Plant, although viral concentrations declined notably in the first half of September, there was a small increase this past week. The Joint Water Pollution Control Plant reported small decreases throughout September.
Lancaster Water Reclamation Plant that serves Lancaster and Palmdale, and the Tapia Water Reclamation Facility, serving Calabasas and surrounding areas, reported stable concentrations with small increases the past few days.
The plateauing in viral concentrations in wastewater may signify that viral transmission is no longer decreasing, because most of our other early alert signals indicate low concern. L.A. County Health remains hopeful that transmission is not increasing at this time. However, the plateauing does highlight the need to carefully monitor the other signals to see if there are any additional signs in the next couple of weeks that suggest changes in transmission patterns or illness severity.
Overall, the county continues to report improved COVID-19 metrics. The 7-day average case count in the county is 1,297, an 8% decline from one week ago when the 7-day average of 1,397 cases was reported.
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