Is Washington state in another Covid surge?

It seems that almost everyone knows someone who has Covid in Western Washington these days, or has heard of someone who has had it recently. But in this post-pandemic emergency era, how do we know if we're in a surge?

Reductions in community testing mean data on case numbers is no longer reliable. However, Pavitra Roychoudhury is a virologist with UW Medicine and she's been watching numbers that indicate local levels of Covid. Roychoudhury keeps track of local hospitalization counts, as well as virus levels detected in wastewater. These indicate if levels are higher or lower in the area.

“The rates of hospitalizations — that is people who are in the hospital either with Covid or due to Covid — is rising in Washington and other parts of the U.S. So that is certainly indicating that something is going on," Roychoudhury said.

She added that while Covid levels detected in wastewater have also been rising, locally, they may be starting to level off.