Palm Springs Tests Wastewater for Monkeypox

The City of Palm Springs and GT Molecular are working together to track the prevalence of Monkeypox (MPX) in Palm Springs’ wastewater. Monday results from the previous two weeks were posted to the City’s MPX (Monkeypox) landing page located at palmspringsca.gov/mpxinfo. City officials say they plan to post results every Monday. This is a way to help mitigate the threat of the virus in the community, and helps public health officials understand trends in community-wide levels of viruses such as COVID-19 and MPX (Monkeypox) and make well-informed public health decisions. "As MPX (Monkeypox) continues to spread, rapid detection in wastewater samples is necessary to quickly enact policies that aim to slow the spread of the virus and protect the community from future obstacles," said City of Palm Springs Principal Engineer Donn Uyeno, who oversees the City’s partnership with GT Molecular. For the past two years, the City has successfully partnered with GT Molecular to test and monitor COVID-19 wastewater levels in the community.