The state has been tracking wastewater data throughout the pandemic to help determine the prevalence of the coronavirus in local communities.
Accordingly, Hull sends wastewater samples to the Massachusetts Department of Public Health three times a week as part of the state’s effort to look for early COVID-19 trends in the Greater Boston area.
“The samples are not intended to be predictive for a single community,” Town Manager Philip Lemnios told The Hull Times in response to an inquiry prompted by a resident.
This uncertainty is due in part to the recognition that wastewater flows in many instances are produced by multiple towns and cities. “For instance, Deer Island treats wastewater from many communities, and Hull treats wastewater from Hull, Cohasset, and Hingham,” Lemnios said. “The information is viewed as directional in nature, not definitive in relation to a specific community.”
The samples are viewed as one indicator of what the COVID-19 situation could look like in the near future, comparable to the “canary in the coal mine theory,” which suggests an advance warning/early indicator of potential danger.
“There are many other variables that impact COVID infection rates, including – but not limited to – demographics, vaccination status, population density, and other factors,” Lemnios noted.
On a related issue, he pointed to an ongoing “robust discussion” within the public health community about how to report and analyze data as they relate to the Omicron strain.
“Case counts are increasingly being viewed as something that may not be as significant as the hospitalization rate and deaths associated with the Omicron strain, which is [considered to be] more transmissible but less serious in nature and leading to fewer deaths,” Lemnios said. “So, stay tuned as we all continue to grapple with what this all means.”
See https://www.mass.gov/info-details/covid-19-response-reporting for the latest overall state and local coronavirus statistics.
