The COVID-19 viral load in Houston’s wastewater has sunk to its lowest point in six months as the city puts the latest wave, driven by the highly contagious omicron subvariant BA.5, in the rear view.
Houston Health Dept., employees Muhammad Farhad, left, and Kendra Davis remove a sampler from a sewer line as they prepare to collect water samples on Wednesday, July 20, 2022 in Houston.
The wastewater levels are 71 percent of what the Houston Health Department detected during the July 2020 wave, which the city uses as a benchmark, according to Texas Medical Center data . The viral load was nearly 900 percent of the baseline in July. The COVID hospitalization rate and positivity rate also continue to decline steadily.Harris County last week dropped its COVID community level from “medium” to “low,” which recommends staying up to date on vaccinations and testing if you have symptoms. Scientists are looking to other countries for signs of what comes next.
"Our history has typically been a winter surge," said Dr. Luis Ostrosky, chief of infectious diseases with McGovern Medical School at UTHealth Houston."So let's enjoy it while we can." Dr. James McDeavitt, executive vice president and dean of clinical affairs at Baylor College of Medicine, notes that the U.S. is still seeing an average of 300 to 400 COVID deaths per day.Several new omicron off-shoots have been detected in the United Kingdom, India, Singapore, Denmark and Australia,. BA.5 continues to dominate cases in the United States, though one subvariant, BA.4.
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