Las Vegas virus authorities are looking at sewage water to determine the spread of a new potentially deadly outbreak.

Monkeypox has been detected through Southern Nevada’s wastewater surveillance program, a UNLV researcher said Monday.

The Southern Nevada Health District announced that there are now 23 probable and confirmed cases of monkeypox in Clark County as of Aug. 1.

For the second week in a row, COVID-19 hospitalizations fell and cases plateaued in Clark County and Nevada, according to state data released Wednesday, which could signal the start of a more sustained decline.

The University of Nevada Las Vegas's coronavirus early warning system has grown substantially since its inception in 2020 as students began working as many as seven days a week gathering, processing, and sequencing sewage samples from across Southern Nevada in search of new COVID variants.

For the second straight week, COVID-19 hospitalizations dipped and cases plateaued in Clark County and in Nevada, according to state data released Wednesday, potentially signaling the start of a more sustained downturn.

As the latest and most transmissible COVID-19 variant, BA.5, spreads rapidly through the U.S. and Nevada in what has become the sixth wave of the pandemic, experts say that low vaccination rates have contributed to the continual morphing and spreading of the virus.

COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations have declined in Clark County and across Nevada over the past week, according to state data released Wednesday.