{"id":443352,"date":"2026-09-21T21:42:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-21T21:42:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/443352\/"},"modified":"2026-09-21T21:42:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-21T21:42:09","slug":"texas-has-highest-covid-wastewater-levels-cdc-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/443352\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas has highest COVID wastewater levels, CDC says"},"content":{"rendered":"

Over the summer, Texas and Harris County saw their\u00a0COVID-19<\/a> levels in\u00a0wastewater grow to levels higher than those in any other state.<\/p>\n

Although COVID-19 infections are declining<\/a>\u00a0statewide, 38 wastewater monitoring sites in Texas detected the virus \u2014 making the state’s community viral activity level “very high<\/a>,” according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The federal agency tests sewage water to detect signs of infection in communities, even from people who feel healthy.<\/p>\n

The Houston region also saw its emergency department visits related to COVID-19 peak this year in August,\u00a0when they accounted for more than 1% of\u00a0emergency department visits. <\/a><\/p>\n

Here’s what to know about this summer’s COVID-19 cases and where to get tested.<\/p>\n

As of Sept. 16, Texas was one of 13 states in the country where COVID-19 infections were declining, whereas 27 other states saw its infections growing, according to the CDC.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, the agency labeled Texas as the only state that had “very high” community viral activity levels for COVID-19 based on wastewater testing. California, Florida and Washington followed the Lone Star State with “high” levels.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While this summer’s COVID-19 cases were driven by\u00a0a variety of strains<\/a>, the most common were SW.2, which made up 21% of positive infections, and XFG.1.1, which accounted for 16%, according to the CDC.<\/p>\n

Houstonians can get tested at major pharmacies such as CVS and Walgreens.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Some insurance plans may also cover at-home COVID-19 tests, which can be ordered through\u00a0many pharmacies and online retailers.<\/p>\n

Urgent care clinics operated by Memorial Hermann and Houston Methodist also provide testing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Over the summer, Texas and Harris County saw their\u00a0COVID-19 levels in\u00a0wastewater grow to levels higher than those in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":443353,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[56,58,57],"class_list":["post-443352","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-houston","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/443352","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=443352"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/443352\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/443353"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=443352"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=443352"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=443352"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}