Emily Lu, a graduate student in environmental sciences at Ohio State University, tries to extract ribonucleic acid (RNA) from wastewater samples to test for fragments of COVID-19 in March 2022 at a school lab in Columbus, Ohio. With the help of universities, some states and local governments are learning to detect trends in COVID-19 and other illnesses from wastewater without relying on swab tests of individuals. (Patrick Orsagos/The Associated Press)
Levels of COVID-19 in Utah’s wastewater are “very high,” according to a tracker from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Most of the 35 wastewater monitors from the Utah Department of Health and Human Services, including the majority of those on the Wasatch Front and southwest Utah are seeing elevated levels of the virus, indicating that more people are getting infected in Utah.
“They’re not the highest we’ve ever seen by any stretch of the imagination, but they are also clearly elevated,” said Nathan LaCross, manager for Utah’s Wastewater Surveillance Program at DHHS.