UC Berkeley Wastewater Monitoring Team Makes Data Available to the Public
Since the start of the pandemic, the COVID-WEB team at UC Berkeley, led by Prof. Kara Nelson, has been working with public health officials and wastewater agencies to monitor how much SARS-CoV-2 is excreted by people in California communities. Individuals infected with COVID-19 – whether they have symptoms or are asymptomatic — shed the virus’ genetic material in their feces, so wastewater can provide an accurate signal of how much virus is actually circulating in the community. This information complements COVID-19 case counts by providing a view of infection trends that isn’t biased by access to clinical testing or under-reporting of at-home test results.

COVID-WEB has shared results of wastewater analysis with public health officials from the start of the project, in October of 2020. Now, after a year and a half of refining methods and gaining experience with this new type of data, the information from 11 California counties is available to the public at https://data.covid-web.org/. The website includes an in-depth Frequently Asked Questions section that explains the way wastewater monitoring works. The COVID-WEB team also encourages other researchers to contact them if they want to collaborate on further analyses with the raw data. Media contact: Sasha Harris-Lovett, sharrislovett@berkeley.edu.

 

CalOES Mask Program Update
The Office of Emergency Services (CalOES) has re-opened their PPE Distribution program to provide 3ply surgical masks, KN95 respirators, and 16.9oz bottles of hand sanitizer.

Trade associations with a salesforce account should now be able to order these three items as they have before. For any questions on that, please contact Joe Hearn. Joe.hearn@caloes.ca.gov.

For a new request, please utilize the attached form and send it back to Joe Hearn – joe.hearn@caloes.ca.gov.

  • Basic justification is needed – # of workforce in county, # of small businesses served, etc
    • This information will only be used IF they need to audit the program. CalOES will reach out to you if that is necessary.
  • 3ply Surgical Masks come in a carton of 2000. Each carton has 40 boxes of 50.
  • KN95 Respirators come in a carton of 1260.  Each carton has 63 boxes of 20.
  • Hand Sanitizer comes with 24 bottles per carton. Each bottle is 16.9 oz.
  • You can request up to a 30-day supply.
  • The distribution method will be completely up to the Local Organization.
  • Please note that they will NOT be advertising your organization as having PPE.  Advertisement of your availability is up to your organization.