COVID-19 is spreading at elevated levels across Harris County, and the only way health officials can track it now is by testing sewage.

Harris County Public Health classified COVID-19 viral activity in wastewater as "high" countywide as of Thursday, Aug. 20, according to KHOU 11. Some monitoring sites in Katy, Cypress and other parts of the Houston area registered "very high" readings.

The classification matters for Spring residents because individual COVID-19 cases are no longer a mandatory reportable disease in Texas. No one is tallying how many people test positive. Not your doctor's office, not the county, not the state. Wastewater testing is now the primary tool for gauging how much virus is circulating in the community.

HCPH told KHOU 11 reporter Holly Galvan that it cannot provide a total number of recent COVID-19 cases because of the reporting change. Outbreaks, however, are still reportable. The agency received one outbreak report on Aug. 6 at an unidentified facility in southwestern Harris County.

How wastewater tracking works

Harris County Public Health collects sewage samples from sites across the county and tests them for COVID-19, influenza and RSV. The results reflect community-level virus trends rather than individual infections. HCPH said the current increase should be viewed as an indicator of broader COVID-19 activity, not a precise case count.

An early-release CDC study in the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases found that wastewater signals in Harris County preceded emergency department visits by three to 15 days during a two-year tracking period ending in June 2024. That research suggests elevated sewage readings can serve as an early warning before hospitals see a spike.

What Spring residents should know

HCPH's dashboard does not single out Spring-area monitoring sites by name in the KHOU report, but the countywide "high" classification covers all of Harris County's jurisdiction, which includes unincorporated Spring. The gap is real. The agency is expanding its wastewater surveillance program to cover more areas.

Residents can check the latest readings at publichealth.harriscountytx.gov or call HCPH at (832) 927-7350.