Recent wastewater samples from Shreveport show an increase in COVID in northwestern Louisiana. The Center for Excellence for Emerging Viral Threats at LSU Health Shreveport has been monitoring samples.
“You can typically see a spike in SARS-Co-V-2 levels maybe about two weeks or so before cases in the community start to spike because people don’t even realize they are sick yet,” said Director of Viral Genomic and Surveillance Dr. Krista Queen.
Queen said people in the area should practice social distancing, wear face masks, and clean their hands more often because they could be spreading COVID and not know it yet.
She said when individuals are infected the virus begins replicating in their bodies even before they know they are sick.
“One of the places it replicates significantly is in the gastrointestinal tract and then it sheds when the individual uses the restroom,” said Queen.
Queen said the increase of the virus in wastewater is similar to this time last year when because people tend to gather more for the holidays and also spread viruses.
“What we’re also seeing is that the variants that are circulating some of them are more likely to cause reinfection, even if you’ve had a COVID-19 infection pretty recently,” said Queen.
Even though the wastewater samples are from Shreveport, Queen said it’s indicative of the area in terms of community spread.
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