Press release: COVID-WEB wastewater data now available to the public

Want to know the COVID trends in your community? Now, in addition to the case counts on the county public health websites, you can check how much SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, is in wastewater. 

Since the start of the pandemic, the COVID-WEB team at UC Berkeley, led by Prof. Kara Nelson, has been working with public health officials and wastewater agencies to monitor how much SARS-CoV-2 is excreted by people in California communities. Individuals infected with COVID-19 – whether they have symptoms or are asymptomatic -- shed the virus’ genetic material in their feces, so wastewater can provide an accurate signal of how much virus is actually circulating in the community. This information complements COVID-19 case counts by providing a view of infection trends that isn’t biased by access to clinical testing or under-reporting of at-home test results – after all, everyone uses the bathroom. 

COVID-WEB has shared results of wastewater analysis with public health officials from the start of the project, in October of 2020. Now, after a year and a half of refining methods and gaining experience with this new type of data, the information from 11 California counties is available to the public at https://data.covid-web.org/. The website includes an in-depth Frequently Asked Questions section that explains the way wastewater monitoring works. The COVID-WEB team also encourages other researchers to contact them if they want to collaborate on further analyses with the raw data.

“This data portal gives the public the ability to see what public health officials are seeing, in real time,” said Dr. Nelson. “We hope it will be another useful source of information to help people understand the ever-changing conditions, and empower people to  make good decisions about how to stay safe during the pandemic.” 

For more information, contact the researchers.