VDH Points Swimming Advisory for Cape Charles Beach

The Northampton County Health Department has issued a swimming advisory for Cape Charles Public Beach after testing discovered elevated micro organism ranges within the water.

Samples collected Tuesday, Aug. 11, by the Virginia Department of Health confirmed micro organism ranges exceeded state water high quality requirements. Swimming is just not advisable till additional discover, and warning indicators have been posted on the seashore.

“The coastal waters of Virginia are generally very clean, and we test them frequently to confirm this,” Eastern Shore Health District Director Jon Richardson mentioned. “On the occasions when waters do fail to meet the standards, we need to protect public health by letting residents and visitors know.”

Health officers take a look at leisure waters for enterococci, organisms used as indicators of attainable fecal contamination in marine and estuarine waters. Enterococci don’t trigger sickness themselves, however their presence can point out that different disease-causing organisms could also be within the water.

People who swim or play in water with micro organism ranges above the state customary face an elevated danger of gastrointestinal sickness.

Health officers will proceed testing the seashore. The advisory will likely be lifted and the warning indicators eliminated when micro organism ranges return to a suitable degree.

“Typically, an advisory of this nature is temporary and will be withdrawn once the bacteria levels have returned to a safe level,” Richardson mentioned.

Cape Charles Public Beach is examined weekly throughout the swimming season, which runs from late May by way of early September.

Additional info is out there from the Northampton County Health Department at 757-414-6252. Current advisories and swimming-safety info can be found by way of the Virginia Department of Health beach-monitoring program and Swim Healthy Virginia.