The following is a statement released on the City of Fort Bragg’s Facebook page:
The City of Fort Bragg has received the results from two separate weeks of COVID-19 sewage tests. The first 24-hour composite sample was taken on July 22, 2020 and the second on July 28, 2020. Although the presence of two strains of COVID-19 were tested for, only one strain, the more common in this pandemic, is present in the Fort Bragg raw sewage. The strength detected from July 28 was 5.78 copies per milliliter (mL), which was down from the prior week. The July 22 sample results were 16.5 copies per mL. The calculation used by some laboratories to estimate the possible number of COVID-19 positive cases is not an industry-recognized standard. Further, like most sampling, it requires an accurate population count, and the larger the population number, the more useful the information. The influx of tourists and workers into Fort Bragg daily, plus our relatively small population, makes this task impossible and would likely result in providing unreliable or even inaccurate information. Instead, this data will be used to track increases and decreases of the presence of COVID-19 in the City’s raw sewage and in the community. The City is waiting for the results of the August 4, 2020 sample.
