The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has told the public that about 200 wastewater testing sites will briefly stop reporting data while it switches testing contracts, but it has not said when the gap will begin, how long it will last, or which communities will lose coverage. The notice sits at the top of the CDC's national wastewater data dashboard, which was last updated September 25.
The timing matters because fall respiratory season is starting. Wastewater testing is one of the few early signals that still works when fewer people test for COVID at clinics and most home test results never reach health departments. It can show rising virus levels before illness shows up in other data, a head start that matters for vulnerable households.
