Since May, Philadelphia has been collecting COVID wastewater samples that the health department considers reliable, city officials said. But the data aren’t being used to shape the city’s COVID response.
Philadelphia isn’t using one of its best tools for tracking COVID-19 and other infectious diseases: wastewater.
Officials from the Philadelphia Department of Public Health say they want to fine-tune their testing system to improve accuracy and address data processing delays before using or releasing data. They plan to publish their numbers and share them with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention soon.
The CDC data compiled from 1,155 wastewater sampling sites across the country gives perhaps the most accurate picture of COVID’s spread, showing the prevalence of COVID and whether COVID’s presence is increasing or decreasing.The city resumed wastewater collection in January, and by May was gathering samples program leaders felt were reliable.Still, health officials are withholding data as they work through processing delays.