In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the department and Rice University began testing the wastewater in May 2020 to more quickly identify emerging outbreaks and hotspots needing interventions to help stop the spread of the virus.

Researchers, scientists, engineers, and public health professionals from the department, Houston Public Works, Rice University’s Civil and Environmental Engineering Department and Statistics Department, and early on, Baylor College of Medicine, were all part of developing Houston’s wastewater surveillance system.

“Earning the CDC’s Center of Excellence award demonstrates just how important our wastewater surveillance work is to public health, the city, and the entire country,” said Mayor Sylvester Turner. “This initiative allowed HHD to identify and contain the virus from spreading in our community. I want to commend HHD and all the partners for their hard work and dedication to protecting Houstonians.”

The department monitors SARS-CoV-2 at 39 wastewater treatment plants, 73 manholes, and 63 lift stations for more than two million people across Houston.

People infected with COVID-19 shed viral particles. By testing the wastewater, the health department can track whether levels of the virus in different areas of the city are increasing, decreasing, or staying the same.
An interactive dashboard displays levels of the virus in samples collected weekly. The data helps identify the prevalence of the virus at the community level.

“After two and a half years of dedication to this initiative, wastewater analysis has become a key indicator of COVID-19 trends,” said Dr. Loren Hopkins, chief environmental science officer for the health department and professor in the practice of statistics at Rice University. “This has become increasingly important in recent months due in part to the rise in at-home testing, which is unreported.”

The department and Rice University have established the city as a leader in wastewater epidemiology that supports public health.  Designation as a center of excellence enables continued collaboration between the department and Rice University.

“This award exemplifies the value of strong partnerships between universities and the communities they serve,” said Rice University President Reginald DesRoches. “By working together, experts from Rice University, the Houston Health Department, and Houston Public Works, found that wastewater-based epidemiology was a powerful approach to combating the COVID-19 pandemic. This knowledge can now be standardized, shared with other communities, and used as an overall public health tool.”

“This has become a bold initiative for the city of Houston and for Rice,” said Dr. Katherine Ensor, the university’s Noah G. Harding Professor of Statistics. “It is a perfect example of a successful city-university partnership built from collaborative research and the translation of results to directly benefit people and our communities.”

Houston’s center of excellence award will also help the department share its expertise with cities across the United States and places it center stage as the CDC develops standardized methods for this new public health tool.

The center will provide trainings to state and local health departments, and other entities that plan to conduct wastewater surveillance. Trainings will focus on Houston’s experience and cover topics such as sampling and analysis, statistical interpretation, and public health intervention.

Data from the department’s award-winning wastewater surveillance system is published on the department’s interactive COVID-19 monitoring dashboard.

Today, Mayor Sylvester Turner announced the city is launching an open finance initiative to allow Houstonians to track how their money is being spent.

In April 2021, the City of Houston created the Open Finance initiative to provide more transparency about the City’s finances. This includes publishing relevant, accessible datasets about the City’s budget, checkbook, and payroll. It also provides simple data visualizations to help the public explore the City’s financial activities.

Localities can benefit from data that helps measure policy efforts, increase government operational and processes efficiency, provide deeper analytical insights and increase citizen participation. Increased transparency through open data initiatives enhances the collaboration between residents and their elected leaders. These efforts empower residents to get involved and understand the City’s financial activities.

“Open Finance allows citizen advocates to stay informed and gain access to the same information stakeholders and government leaders use to make decisions in the day-to-day operations of local government,” Mayor Sylvester Turner said. “This initiative is another significant step toward improving public engagement and building awareness of the City’s financial activities.”

The objectives of Open Finance (https://openfinance.houstontx.gov) are to: 

• Achieve a high standard of financial transparency by providing metrics, interactive visualizations, and downloadable data for Open Budget, Open Checkbook, and Open Payroll to the public.
• Publish information that is accurate, compliant, sustainable, consolidated

 Open Finance initiative includes three phases:

• Open Budget (July 2022) dataset is structured by two different aspects: revenue and expenditure data depicted as both budget and actual.
• Open Payroll (Est. October 2022) will provide employee payroll data that can be filtered by payment period, department, function and other dimensions
• Open Checkbook (Est. January 2023) will detail expenditure-level payment information; detailing expenses remitted to various vendors and/or payment recipients

The City of Houston Finance department is accepting feedback/questions at the following location.

PHYSICAL ADDRESS:
Finance Department
611 Walker, 10th Floor
Houston, TX 77002
Ph: 832.393.9120
E-Mail: finance.director@houstontx.gov

The department will announce the availability of additional vaccination appointments after it receives additional doses of the JYNNEOS monkeypox vaccine.

This morning, Mayor Sylvester Turner and Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo sent a letter to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention asking for more vaccines.

Houston currently has 58 confirmed cases.

Monkeypox vaccine has not been widely available nationwide. However, widespread vaccination is not recommended at this time.

The department on Friday received a shipment of 5,024 doses of the JYNNEOS monkeypox vaccine. It retained 3,516 doses and provided 1,508 doses to Harris County Public Health.

Groups prioritized by the department for monkeypox vaccination are:

• People confirmed to have had high- or intermediate-risk contact with someone with monkeypox, as defined by CDC.
• People who attended an event or venue where there was a high risk of exposure to someone with confirmed monkeypox virus through skin-to-skin or sexual contact. The department works with event or venue organizers to identify people who may have been present and at risk of exposure while at the venue.

Other groups receiving vaccination priority are people who:

• Were diagnosed with gonorrhea or early syphilis within the past 3 months
• Are on HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP); or
• Attended or worked at a commercial sex venue or other venues where they had anonymous sex or sex with multiple partners (e.g., saunas, bathhouses, sex clubs, sex parties) within the past 21 days.

The threat of monkeypox to Houston’s general population remains low. Monkeypox is rare and doesn’t spread easily between people without close, personal, skin-to-skin contact.

Symptoms include a rash or sores that can look like pimples or blisters, fever, headache, weakness, chills and swollen lymph nodes.

Monkeypox can spread from person to person through prolonged face-to-face contact, intimate contact and or close contact with the infectious rash, scabs, or body fluids. Contact with items such as clothing or linens that previously touched the rash or body fluids is another way monkeypox spreads.

The illness usually lasts two to four weeks. It can spread from the time symptoms start until the rash fully heals and a fresh layer of skin has formed.
People who suspect that they have monkeypox symptoms such as new unexplained rash or sores need to contact their doctor to set up a screening appointment.

For more information about monkeypox, prevention tips and resources, visit houstonhealth.org or call the department’s call center at 832-393-4220.