COVID Is Rising Again in the Bay Area For Summer 2026 — But Don’t Panic | KQED
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COVID levels in Bay Area wastewaters are starting to increase, signaling a possible summer swell — as if you needed another thing to worry about. Here’s what to know about your risk.

As if you needed another health concern to worry about — beyond the “explosive diarrhea” stomach parasite causing a surge of sicknesses around the United States — it looks like the COVID-19 virus is making a gradual reappearance in the Bay Area.

To put it another way: Any “summer cold” you hear people complaining about over the coming week could once again be COVID-19.

According to Stanford University’s WastewaterSCAN team, which monitors coronavirus presence in human sewage, concentrations of the pathogen across the Bay Area sites they monitor are up 104% right now, compared to their June levels.