(Bloomberg) -- The surge in coronavirus infections may have hit a peak in the Boston area amid a steep decline of viral signals in wastewater.

Data from Boston-based Biobot Analytics, a startup that monitors Covid levels in sewage, showed that the virus concentration in the city’s wastewater samples is down more than 50% from its recent peak. The drop-off is the most dramatic to date, according to Biobot President and co-founder Newsha Ghaeli, after virus signals shooting up 10 times compared with levels a year ago.

“We are pretty confident and hopeful that we have passed the the peak of omicron infections,” Ghaeli said Thursday in an interview with Bloomberg Radio. “Hospitalizations might still continue to rise, but there are better days ahead.”

The level of coronavirus in wastewater is seen as a leading indicator for Covid caseload, as it often takes days to confirm an infection through a diagnostic test. Boston Mayor Michelle Wu said on Thursday that the the peak of the omicron wave “may be past us soon,” citing wastewater data. The seven-day moving average of confirmed Covid cases in Boston dropped 10% on Monday, according to data from the Boston Public Health Commission. 

Elsewhere, sewage data indicated that omicron infections in Florida’s Miami-Dade County may have turned a corner. In New York, the number of people visiting the city’s emergency departments with Covid-like illness has dipped in all five boroughs.

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