Public Health Interventions Guided by Houston’s Wastewater Surveillance Program During the COVID-19 Pandemic
Loren Hopkins, Katherine B. Ensor, Lauren B. Stadler, Catherine D. Johnson, Rebecca Schneider, Kaavya Domakonda, James J. McCarthy, Edward Septimus, David Persse, Stephen L. Williams
Abstract
Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, wastewater surveillance has emerged as a powerful tool used by public health authorities to track SARS-CoV-2 infections in communities. In May 2020, the Houston Health Department began working with a coalition of municipal and academic partners to develop a wastewater monitoring and reporting system for the city of Houston, Texas. Data collected from the system are integrated with other COVID-19 surveillance data and communicated through different channels to local authorities and the general public. This information is used to shape policies and inform actions to mitigate and prevent the spread of COVID-19 at municipal, institutional, and individual levels. Based on the success of this monitoring and reporting system to drive public health protection efforts, the wastewater surveillance program is likely to become a standard part of the public health toolkit for responding to infectious diseases and, potentially, other disease-causing outbreaks.