- antigen tests aren't free in the US any more, and nobody reported positives on them even when they were
- as of the middle of last year antigen tests only had a 63% true positive rate against omicron variants (78% against symptomatic cases, which is still not great) and that probably hasn't gone up
- you can't get a PCR test without a prescription now so basically the only people showing up in public test positivity statistics are being hospitalized
if you're in seattle, you want to hit up https://doh.wa.gov/emergencies/covid-19/data-dashboard#WasteWater and set the code of the water treatment plant to BWT (the Brightwater treatment plant, up in Bothell)
the equivalent link for the South Bay is https://covid19.sccgov.org/dashboard-wastewater
it's already High in San Jose and accelerating ramping up in Palo Alto and Sunnyvale so be careful out there, bay area folks
The equivalent link for much of California (find your sewershed on the map) is https://www.cdph.ca.gov/Programs/CID/DCDC/Pages/COVID-19/CalSuWers-Dashboard.aspx .
Also, FYI, insured people in California can still get PCR testing free from in-network providers, as well as the 8 home tests per month (for what those are worth). https://www.cdph.ca.gov/Programs/CID/DCDC/CDPH%20Document%20Library/COVID-19/Simple-COVID-19-Coverage-Change.pdf