Wayne State University SARS-CoV-2 monitoring in the City of Detroit, Public Data Page
Jeffrey L. Ram (Department of Physiology) and
William Shuster (Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering)
Lance Gable (School of Law)
For a summary of the objectives and methods of the project, see the
SARS-CoV-2-Wastewater Monitoring Project Summary
The above graph covers the period of October 2021 until May 2023 and reports the integrated result of sampling 22 sewersheds in the city of Detroit. The sewersheds are located all over the city, including southwest, northwest, northeast, south-central (e.g., near Belle Isle), and in the center of the city, including the DMC area and Wayne State. The sewersheds vary in size from a single building (a Wayne State dormitory) to as large as most of a ZIP Code area. The graph shows the sum of the counts from varying subsets of 10-11 sites, sampled out of the total of 22 sites. The purpose of the graph is to show overall trends of total wastewater COVID-19 virus (SARS-CoV-2) levels in Detroit, and not to identify particular locations (therefore, no site names or maps are provided). A general view from these data is that SARS-CoV-2 viral markers in wastewater in Detroit have generally decreased from the end of February until now (mid-May, 2023) except for sporadic increases at a minority of sites. The percentage of sites over 1000 copies/100 mL was 13%, the lowest we've seen since we started calculating this percentage. These are good signs that COVID-19 may not be spreading as actively in the community. The virus is still present but probably less likely to be encountered. in daily life.
Historical interpretation of the graph: The period before the earliest date shown in this graph (summer 2021) had had very low levels of virus in wastewater and low numbers of cases in Michigan and Detroit. At the beginning of this graph (October 2021), virus levels began to rise, most likely due to the Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2 ), rising to a peak at the beginning of November 2021, and then subsided somewhat until December, 2021. The rapid rise in virus levels at the end of December 2021 and continuing through January 2022 was the Omicron outbreak. While the Omicron outbreak subsided through February and the beginning of March 2022, the viral levels surged again after April 2022, said to correspond to various variants of the Omicron strain. Outbreaks peaked again in May 2022 and had sporadic increases during summer, 2022, in contrast to the much lower levels that had occurred in Summer 2021. The rise in the curve in December 2022 seems to follow an "annual" pattern of increasing COVID-19 infections following Thanksgiving. The fall in marker levels in February through April 2023 follows the pattern observed in February and March 2022.
The graph starts only at the beginning of October 2021, the date at which we began to use a new technique to isolate the SARS-CoV-2 markers from wastewater. This new technique, using a Perkin-Elmer Chemagic 360 Nucleic Acid Purification instrument, is able to extract the viral markers more efficiently than previous measurements which used a PEG/NaCl/Qiagen extraction technique. Recent analysis indicate that levels detected using the Chemagic 360 are about 5 times higher when compared to same samples extracted by the previous (PEG/NaCl/Qiagen) technique (West et al., https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.04.03.22273370v1) .
Data on proportions of sites showing detectable SARS-CoV-2 marker levels:
Percent of sites above 1000 copies/100 mL, out of 20 (after 8/1/2022, out of 22) sites (& in parentheses, # of sites out above 5000 copies/100 mL)
week of
11/29/2021: 55% (7)
12/6/2021: 45% (4)
12/13/2021: 60% (6)
12/20/2021: 90% (9)
12/27/2021: 95% (15)
1/3//2022: 90% (16)
1/10/2022: 80% (14)
1/17/2022: 80% (9)
1/24/2022: 85% (8)
2/1/2022: 60% (4)
2/7/2022: 50% (3)
2/14/2022: 30% (1)
2/21/2022: 15% (1)
2/28/2022: 20% (0)
3/7/2022: 10% (0)
3/14/2022: 20% (2)
3/21/2022: 20% (1)
3/28/2022: 25% (2)
4/4/2022: 25% (0)
4/11/2022: 25% (1)
4/18/2022: 35% (3)
4/25/2022: 40% (3)
5/2/2022: 65% (11)
5/9/2022: 65% (10)
5/16/2022: 50% (5)
5/23/2022: 75% (8)
5/30/2022: 60% (7)
6/6/2022: 30% (4), but note: 2 additional sites not usually tested also had counts above 5,000 copies/100 mL
6/13/2022: 25% (2), but note 1 additional site not usually tested also had counts about 5000 copies/100 mL
6/20/2022: 55% (5)
6/27/2022: 35% (1), but note 1 new additional site in southwest Detroit had counts over 5000 copies/100 ml
7/4/2022: 20% (1)
7/11/2022: 60% (6)
7/18/2022: 35% (1)
7/25/2022: 60% (5)
8/1/2022 73% (7)
8/8/2022 36% (1)
8/15/2022 45% (2)
8/22/2022 68% (11)
8/29/2022 45% (2)
9/5/2022 68% (5)
9/12/2022 55% (2)
- - - - - - -technical problems prevented sampling for 4 weeks- - - - - - - - - - -
10/17/2022 59% (7)
10/24/2022 64% (7)
10/31/2022 50% (7)
11/07/2022 50% (6)
11/14/2022 55% (7)
11/21/2022 55% (7)
11/28/2022 60% (8)
12/5/2022 64% (11)
12/12/2022 73% (14)
12/19/2022 73% (11)
12/26/2022 41% (5)
1/2/2023 55% (4)
1/9/2023 41% (1)
1/16/2023 50% (5)
1/16/2023 50% (5)
1/23/2023 59% (5)
1/30/2023 55% (8)
2/6/2023 55% (5)
2/13/2023 59% (8)
2/20/2023 55% (5)
2/27/2023 41% (5)
3/6/2023 32% (1)
3/13/2023 32% (2)
3/20/2023 50% (5)
3/27/2023 23% (0)
4/3/2023 23% (4)
4/10/2023 50% (7)
4/17/2023 35% (1)
4/24/2023 23% (1)
5/1/2023 27% (2)
5/8/2023 23% (1)
5/15/2023 13% (0)
These data about proportions of positive sites show a similar pattern to the historical interpretation given above. The recent downward trend in the proportion of positive sites (to about 15%) is a hopeful trend but indicates that infections are still present in the community.
week of
11/29/2021: 55% (7)
12/6/2021: 45% (4)
12/13/2021: 60% (6)
12/20/2021: 90% (9)
12/27/2021: 95% (15)
1/3//2022: 90% (16)
1/10/2022: 80% (14)
1/17/2022: 80% (9)
1/24/2022: 85% (8)
2/1/2022: 60% (4)
2/7/2022: 50% (3)
2/14/2022: 30% (1)
2/21/2022: 15% (1)
2/28/2022: 20% (0)
3/7/2022: 10% (0)
3/14/2022: 20% (2)
3/21/2022: 20% (1)
3/28/2022: 25% (2)
4/4/2022: 25% (0)
4/11/2022: 25% (1)
4/18/2022: 35% (3)
4/25/2022: 40% (3)
5/2/2022: 65% (11)
5/9/2022: 65% (10)
5/16/2022: 50% (5)
5/23/2022: 75% (8)
5/30/2022: 60% (7)
6/6/2022: 30% (4), but note: 2 additional sites not usually tested also had counts above 5,000 copies/100 mL
6/13/2022: 25% (2), but note 1 additional site not usually tested also had counts about 5000 copies/100 mL
6/20/2022: 55% (5)
6/27/2022: 35% (1), but note 1 new additional site in southwest Detroit had counts over 5000 copies/100 ml
7/4/2022: 20% (1)
7/11/2022: 60% (6)
7/18/2022: 35% (1)
7/25/2022: 60% (5)
8/1/2022 73% (7)
8/8/2022 36% (1)
8/15/2022 45% (2)
8/22/2022 68% (11)
8/29/2022 45% (2)
9/5/2022 68% (5)
9/12/2022 55% (2)
- - - - - - -technical problems prevented sampling for 4 weeks- - - - - - - - - - -
10/17/2022 59% (7)
10/24/2022 64% (7)
10/31/2022 50% (7)
11/07/2022 50% (6)
11/14/2022 55% (7)
11/21/2022 55% (7)
11/28/2022 60% (8)
12/5/2022 64% (11)
12/12/2022 73% (14)
12/19/2022 73% (11)
12/26/2022 41% (5)
1/2/2023 55% (4)
1/9/2023 41% (1)
1/16/2023 50% (5)
1/16/2023 50% (5)
1/23/2023 59% (5)
1/30/2023 55% (8)
2/6/2023 55% (5)
2/13/2023 59% (8)
2/20/2023 55% (5)
2/27/2023 41% (5)
3/6/2023 32% (1)
3/13/2023 32% (2)
3/20/2023 50% (5)
3/27/2023 23% (0)
4/3/2023 23% (4)
4/10/2023 50% (7)
4/17/2023 35% (1)
4/24/2023 23% (1)
5/1/2023 27% (2)
5/8/2023 23% (1)
5/15/2023 13% (0)
These data about proportions of positive sites show a similar pattern to the historical interpretation given above. The recent downward trend in the proportion of positive sites (to about 15%) is a hopeful trend but indicates that infections are still present in the community.
Data on case rates at Michigan long-term-care facilities can be found at a State of Michigan site.