COVID-19 Detected in City of Homer Wastewater, Reflects Uptick in Positive Cases - Updated June 12, 2020

On June 9, 2020, the City of Homer received its first report confirming COVID-19 has been detected in Homer’s wastewater. On June 12, the report was reissued.    

Homer is one of 160 public works departments in the United States participating in a study organized by Biobot Analytics in Somerville, Massachusetts to test for the presence of the COVID-19 genetic material in sewage. Every two weeks, Homer collects raw effluent samples that are then sent to Biobot Analytics' laboratory for analysis. Compared to the 159 other participating public works departments, Homer falls slightly above a 1% prevalence rate of COVID-19 in its wastewater.    

The sample collected on May 26, 2020 is Homer’s first sample since the study’s initiation in April that has detected a concentration of the COVID-19 virus. From this sample, Biobot Analytics was able to estimate there could be 60 infected individual carriers of COVID-19 that have used Homer’s wastewater system. While this number is a rough estimate, the presence of COVID-19 genetic material in Homer’s wastewater system does correlate with an uptick in the number of local positive cases. 

For a number of weeks, the Southern Kenai Peninsula has seen community transmission of the COVID-19 virus. For June 9, the State of Alaska Department of Health and Social Services (DHSS) reported 18 active cases in Homer and an additional 23 in other Southern Kenai Peninsula communities. As the “Geographic Distribution of Southern Kenai Peninsula Cases by Date Reported” graph shows, positive cases have been confirmed beginning May 27 through June 10.

Water and wastewater are not known transmission vectors for COVID-19. Testing sewage for the presence of COVID-19 can instead show potential spikes or estimate the number of individual carriers of the disease, which can be useful information in responding to the pandemic.

Homer Mayor Ken Castner invited the State of Alaska’s Chief Medical Officer Dr. Anne Zink to speak to the rapid rise in Homer and Southern Kenai Peninsula cases during the June 8th Homer City Council meeting.

“Regarding the recent cases, we know that there's really kind of four major accelerating factors of COVID,” Zink said. “Travel association, asymptomatic spread or people who don't really realize that they have the disease and are spreading it to others, large group gatherings, and people in congregate settings. And I think what we're seeing in the current spike (in Homer) having to do with all of those things.”

Dr. Zink referenced the numerous celebratory and family gatherings that occurred over the Memorial Day weekend and how there is at least one identified cluster of cases resulting from a familial or congregate setting in Homer and the Southern Kenai Peninsula.  Large gatherings and events offer more opportunities for person-to-person contact and therefore pose greater risk of COVID-19 transmission.  Because of this, DHSS issued guidance for attending summer events safely.  It can be found at the State's Play Every Day blog.   

“…the more individuals take on the responsibility and the more collectively you work together to minimize the spread of COVID, you can go from having a few cases to very few cases. [Or you could go from] a whole lot of cases in a really short period of time” Zink said. 

Effective preventative measures recommended by the State and strongly encouraged by the City of Homer EOC to minimize the spread of COVID include 6 foot social distancing, wearing a face covering while indoors in public places and whenever social distancing is challenging and keeping your social bubbles small. 

More information regarding the City’s participation in the Biobot Analytics study can be found in an April 30 KBBI news story The May 26, 2020 Biobot Analytics report is attached below.