Concentrations of the SARS-CoV-2 virus (the COVID-19 virus) gene in the Chicago sewer system, as measured at eight sewershed sites. These sites represent catchment areas that describe wastewater from 319,700 Chicagoans as of January 2023.
Because SARS-CoV-2 is shed in human feces, this method can be used to estimate changes in COVID-19 at different times and locations across Chicago. While the data in this dataset do not indicate how many people were infected with SARS-CoV-2, differences in the the normalized_n1 indicate whether the proportion of individuals at the site who are shedding that virus has changed.