Palm Springs wastewater Covid returns to low levels after alarming spike last week Palm Springs city officials say the amount of Covid-19 in wastewater samples is back to low levels after an alarming spike was reported last week. This comes as the city is expected to remove its mask mandate – but there is some concern about the virus being spread by out-of-town visitors. City Manager Justin Clifton said samples last week showed an increase of more than 1,000 percent, translating to between 1,000 and 2,000 cases. But after another week of testing, he said it appeared the levels were back to being low.