There are dozens of links on the landing page. How do I find my report?
The Local Health Department reports on the landing page are sorted by Indiana Public Health Preparedness District. Within each district the reports are sorted alphabetically by the name of the health department. Additional reports for the state, public health districts, and wastewater treatment plants are available in the other reports section of the landing page.
Why are there numbers for the wastewater treatment sites? How do I know which is mine?
To maintain data anonymity, wastewater treatment facilities have been assigned a numeric site ID consistent with public CDC content such as the Wastewater Metric Map on the Wastewater Surveillance site. The map on the wastewater report landing page shows the county and district for each of the sites. The site ID will be sent to WWTP operators so they can monitor their trends.
Where does the wastewater data come from?
Individual sites collect samples that are processed by Biobot or the Indiana Department of Health Laboratory. The labs upload the data into CDC’s NWSS DCIPHER platform. The data is then downloaded and prepared for use in these reports and the Indiana COVID-19 Wastewater Dashboard.
How often are the reports updated?
The reports are refreshed each morning. Refer to the published date at the top of the report to see when it was generated.
Why is the latest sample in my report from several days ago, when our site has collected a more recent sample?
There is typically a delay between when a wastewater sample is collected and reported. It can take up to two weeks for a sample to be published and available for use in the reports.
How is the wastewater concentration determined? What does “relative to Pepper mild mottle virus” mean?
Wastewater samples are analyzed in the laboratory to determine the amount of SARS-CoV-2 virus present. Wastewater concentration is calculated by dividing the SARS-CoV-2 concentration by the concentration of a fecal strength indicator. In this case, the fecal strength indicator is the Pepper mild mottle virus, which is a plant virus consistently detected in human fecal matter.
How are the smooth lines on the wastewater concentration plot calculated?
When aggregating sample values from sites, the values are weighted by the log of the population served within the site’s sewer shed boundary. Normalized values are fit into a robust spline curve where outliers are identified using the residual between the normalized value and the spline. Outliers are removed and a second robust spline fit is performed using the remaining values.
How is the wastewater trend determined?
The trend is calculated using a Mann-Kendall test on the most recent 21 days of wastewater sample data. This test looks for consistent increases or decreases in the concentration of SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater samples collected over that three-week time period. The potential results are increasing, decreasing, and transitioning. In rare cases there may not be enough data to properly calculate the trend, in which case no trend assignment will be displayed.
What is the source of the COVID-19 case and death data?
The Indiana Data Hub maintained by Management Performance Hub (MPH) provides COVID-19 cases and death data at the county and region level.
Why do reports for a city-based LHD show case and death data for the entire county?
Indiana has 92 counties and 92 county-based Local Health Departments. Two counties also have city-based LHDs within them: Lake (East Chicago and Gary) and Hamilton (Fishers).
The wastewater plot at the top of a report is specific to the jurisdiction of the LHD: all wastewater sites within their jurisdiction will be shown, and any sites not in their jurisdiction (even if it is located in their county) will not be shown. If there are no sites within the jurisdiction, the report will show data for all sites within the district.
The COVID-19 case and death data is reported at the county level rather than the LHD jurisdiction level. For Lake LHD and Hamilton LHD, cases and deaths from East Chicago / Gary and Fishers are included. Likewise, for those three city-based LHDs, cases and deaths from the entire county are included.
What’s happening with COVID-19 case numbers? Why are they lower than expected?
The combination of at-home testing and reduced reporting requirements has resulted in less reliable case numbers over the past several months. The case data that is still reported should not be disregarded, nor should it be treated as the full story.
I accidentally transformed the displayed data in one of the plots. How do I get back to the original layout?
Activating the reset axes button (the house icon) in the top right corner of the plot will reset it. Double clicking anywhere on the plot will also reset it.
When I go to the landing page I only see today’s report. How can I access historical reports for my jurisdiction?
Due to the number of reports getting refreshed each day, only the most recent report is available.
My county has a wastewater site, but our report shows the concentration plot for our public health district. Why does the report not show our site’s information?
Wastewater sites that have become permanently inactive and are no longer submitting samples will not be shown in LHD reports. The data from these sites is now out of date, so the information for the relevant public health district will be shown instead.