Studying sewage to better understand the COVID virus in Oxnard
OXNARD, Calif. The City of Oxnard is studying sewage to better understand the COVID-19 virus. Two mutations have already been found through the testing in recent weeks.
It s here at the sewer treatment facility in Oxnard that nearly 20 million gallons of human waste is processed, treated and released into the ocean. It is also here where COVID testing is taking place.
“Ever since the pandemic, we have been looking for innovative ways to understand more about the virus,” said Alexander Hamilton, the Oxnard Fire Chief. “We want to understand its spread and hopefully come up with ways to help protect our residents.”
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Published: Tuesday, 26 January 2021 23:46
Graphic displayed by county Public Health at the Ventura County Board of Supervisors meeting on Jan. 16.
An innovative approach to tracking coronavirus in the Oxnard sewer plant has led to the confirmed discovery of a minute amount of a COVID-19 variant that is “hyper-transmissible,” according to Ventura County Public Health Officer Dr. Robert Levin, who reported its discovery to the Ventura County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday.
Levin told supervisors that, at first, he doubted the sewage surveillance would amount to much. However, it has turned into a trove of information, with the discovery of the variant and the ability for health officials to quantify the coronavirus in a population of approximately 250,000 people, and compare it from one week to the next.
Vaccines roll out in the nick of time
Austin Widger, Ojai Valley News reporter
Ventura County officials moved forward with COVID-19 vaccinations this week, opening up registration to all who fall into Phase 1a, which includes hospital staff, medical first responders, long-term care staff and residents, all other health care providers, and more.
People who are in those categories can register to receive the COVID-19 vaccine on www.venturacountyrecovers.org. The complete list of who can receive the vaccine under Phase 1a is on the website as well.
At the county’s weekly COVID-19 press conference Jan. 13, Ventura County Health Care Agency Chief Deputy Director Barry Zimmerman said more than15,500 people had been vaccinated as of that day. “We are in our first phase of the rollout at this point in time,” he said. “So far, we started Monday (Jan. 11) with nearly 500, yesterday (Jan. 12) over 600 individuals and today (Jan. 13) will be just under 1,000 individuals vaccina