Question regarding the graph of wastewater trends; since you've been involved in the testing in your county you may have an idea of how frequent and/or the number of facilities/agencies had been doing this testing early on in the covid pandemic. I wonder what the graph means if the numbers of testing sites rose greatly during the 2+ year duration.
Good question. The number of sites rose during the first year of the Pandemic, and early on were limited to larger metropolitan regions and University campuses. However the data is reported as viral copies/L, (and not total virus) so you are looking at the concentration of virus over time, which is independent of how many sites are reporting. The number of sites reporting has suddenly dropped dramatically, and I guess that is a result of people feeling the Pandemic is over, and more likely funding (which ran to the end of the year)running out.
Question regarding the graph of wastewater trends; since you've been involved in the testing in your county you may have an idea of how frequent and/or the number of facilities/agencies had been doing this testing early on in the covid pandemic. I wonder what the graph means if the numbers of testing sites rose greatly during the 2+ year duration.
Good question. The number of sites rose during the first year of the Pandemic, and early on were limited to larger metropolitan regions and University campuses. However the data is reported as viral copies/L, (and not total virus) so you are looking at the concentration of virus over time, which is independent of how many sites are reporting. The number of sites reporting has suddenly dropped dramatically, and I guess that is a result of people feeling the Pandemic is over, and more likely funding (which ran to the end of the year)running out.