Covid-SURGE Toolkit: Using Wastewater Data to Monitor Outbreaks

Purpose

Many public health officials struggle with interpreting wastewater data, in part because commonly reported wastewater metrics do not indicate when action is needed. Mathematica developed the Covid-SURGE (Signaling Unprecedented Rises in Groupwide Exposure) Toolkit to help U.S. public health officials interpret and use wastewater data for pandemic management. The toolkit includes:

• A Covid-SURGE Algorithm and Calculator that public health officials can use with their wastewater data to flag community-level COVID-19 surges in real time.
• An interactive Covid-SURGE Risk Estimator that combines wastewater data with other key public health data to create a risk score, risk trend classification, and alerts that provide officials with a more holistic view of COVID-19 exposure.

This generalizable Covid-SURGE algorithm and calculator give public health officials a timely way to assess when renewed attention and action may be needed. In addition, the logical criteria we lay forth provide a framework to develop similar algorithms (e.g., flu-SURGE) for wastewater data on other public health biomarkers.

For more information, contact Aparna Keshaviah.