We made the first ever successful effort in India to detect the genetic material of SARS-CoV-2 viruses to understand the capability and application of wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) surveillance in India. Sampling was carried out on 8 and 27 May 2020 at the Old Pirana Waste Water Treatment Plant (WWTP) at Ahmedabad, Gujarat that receives effluent from Civil Hospital treating COVID-19 patients. All three, i.e. ORF1ab, N and S genes of SARS-CoV-2, were found in the influent with no genes detected in effluent collected on 8 and 27 May 2020. Increase in SARS-CoV-2 genetic loading in the wastewater between 8 and 27 May 2020 samples concurred with corresponding increase in the number of active COVID-19 patients in the city. The number of gene copies was comparable to that reported in untreated wastewaters of Australia, China and Turkey and lower than that of the USA, France and Spain. However, temporal changes in SARS-CoV-2 RNA concentrations need to be substantiated further from the perspectives of daily and short-term changes of SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater through long-term monitoring. The study results SARS-CoV-2 will assist concerned authorities and policymakers to formulate and/or upgrade COVID-19 surveillance to have a more explicit picture of the pandemic curve. While infectivity of SARS-CoV-2 through the excreted viral genetic material in the aquatic environment is still being debated, the presence and detection of genes in wastewater systems makes a strong case for the environmental surveillance of the COVID-19 pandemic.

we made the first-ever successful effort from India to detect the genetic material of SARS-CoV-2 viruses to understand the capability and application of WBE surveillance in India. Sampling was carried out on 8 and 27 May 2020 from Old Pirana Waste Water Treatment Plant (WWTP) at Ahmedabad, Gujarat with 106 million liters per day (MLD) capacity receiving effluent of Civil Hospital treating COVID-19 patient. All three i.e. ORF1ab, N and S genes of SARS-CoV-2 were discerned in the influents with no gene spotted in the effluent collected on 8 and 27 May 2020. Temporal difference between 8 and 27 May 2020 samples was of 10x in gene copy loading with a corresponding change of 2x in the number active COVID-19 patient in the city. Number of gene copies was found comparable to that reported in the untreated wastewaters of Australia, China, and Turkey and lower than that of the USA, France, and Spain. This study, being the first from India and probably among the first ten reports in the world of gene detection of SARS-CoV-2 in the environmental samples, aims to assist concerned authorities and policymakers to formulate and/or upgrade the COVID-19 surveillance to have an explicit picture of the phase of the pandemic. While infectious SARS-CoV-2 has yet to be identified in the aquatic environment, the virus potentially enters the wastewater stream from patient excretions and thus can be a great tool for pandemic monitoring.

An ionic liquid-based surfactant with ester functionality self-aggregates in an aqueous medium and forms ionogels at 8.80% (w/v) concentration at physiological pH. The ionogel exhibited a remarkable change in its appearance with temperature from fibrillar opaque to transparent because of the dynamic changes within its supramolecular structure. This gel-to-gel phase transition occurs below the melting point of the solid ionic liquid. The ionogels were investigated using turbidity, differential scanning calorimetry, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), field emission SEM (FE-SEM), inverted microscopy, transmission electron microscopy imaging, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and rheological measurements. The fibrillar opaque ionogel and transparent ionogel were studied for their ability to absorb dyes (methyl orange and crystal violet) and to encapsulate drugs (diclofenac sodium and imatinib mesylate).

The motivation for designing low-molecular-weight gelators with selfhealing characteristics originates from elegant examples in biology such as vines of the genus Aristolochia whose internal secondary growth exhibits rapid self-healing in their stems. In the present work, we had explored the stimuli-responsive dual gelation characteristics for the ester-functionalized surfactant (4-(2-(hexadecyloxy)-2-oxoethyl)-4methylmorpholin-4-ium bromide, C 16 EMorphBr) in aqueous medium at 7.20% (w/v) critical gel concentration and pH 7.4. The hydrogel provides an excellent platform to study dynamic phase behavior within a supramolecular network as it exhibits transformation from a fibrillar opaque hydrogel to a transparent hydrogel upon heating. Molecular interactions, arrangement within the supramolecular framework, and mechanical properties of the hydrogels were characterized using Fourier transform infrared, small-angle neutron scattering, rheological analysis, and tensile strength and cyclic loading−unloading tests. The fibrillar opaque gel has been characterized for its morphology using scanning electron microscopy, field emission scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, and atomic force microscopy. The self-sustained, self-healable porous fibrillar opaque xerogel was further explored for selectively absorbing anionic dyes and for its load-bearing characteristics. We conclude a perspective on designing a new-age gelator that can open entirely new avenues in environmental protection and wearable "smart" devices.

Increased concern has recently emerged pertaining to the occurrence of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in aquatic environment during the current coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. While infectious SARS-CoV-2 has yet to be identified in the aquatic environment, the virus potentially enters the wastewater stream from patient excretions and a precautionary approach dictates evaluating transmission pathways to ensure public health and safety. Although enveloped viruses have presumed low persistence in water and are generally susceptible to inactivation by environmental stressors, previously identified enveloped viruses persist in the aqueous environment from days to several weeks. Our analysis suggests that not only the surface water, but also groundwater, represent SARS-CoV-2 control points through possible leaching and infiltrations of effluents from health care facilities, sewage, and drainage water. Most fecally transmitted viruses are highly persistent in the aquatic environment, and therefore, the persistence of SARS-CoV-2 in water is essential to inform its fate in water, wastewater and groundwater and subsequent human exposure.

Following the proven concept, capabilities, and limitations of detecting the RNA of Severe Acute Respiratory Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in wastewater, it is pertinent to understand the utility of wastewater surveillance data on various scale. In the present work, we put forward the first wastewater surveillance-based city zonation for effective COVID-19 pandemic preparedness. A three-month data of Surveillance of Wastewater for Early Epidemic Prediction (SWEEP) was generated for the world heritage city of Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India. In this expedition, one hundred sixteen wastewater samples were analyzed to detect SARS-CoV-2 RNA, from September 3rd to November 26th, 2020. A total of 111 samples were detected with at least two out of three SARS-CoV-2 genes (N, ORF 1ab, and S). Monthly variation depicted a significant decline in all three gene copies in October compared to September 2020, followed by a sharp increment in November 2020. Correspondingly, the descending order of average effective gene concentration was: November (~10,729 copies/L) > September (~3047 copies/L) > October (~454 copies/L). Monthly variation of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in the wastewater samples may be ascribed to a decline of 20.48% in the total number of active cases in October 2020 and a rise of 1.82% in November 2020. Also, the monthly recovered new cases were 16.61, 20.03, and 15.58% in September, October, and November 2020, respectively. The percentage change in the gene concentration was observed in the lead of 1–2 weeks with respect to the provisional figures of confirmed cases. SWEEP data-based city zonation was matched with the heat map of the overall COVID-19 infected population in Ahmedabad city, and month-wise effective RNA concentration variations are shown on the map. The results expound on the potential of WBE surveillance of COVID-19 as a city zonation tool that can be meaningfully interpreted, predicted, and propagated for community preparedness through advanced identification of COVID-19 hotspots within a given city.

Surfactant-mediated coacervates are termed as the new age microreactors for their ability to spontaneously sequester the molecules with varied polarities and functionalities. Efforts to emulate this applicability of coacervates through synthetic control of surfactant structures are finding success; however, there is little understanding of how to translate these changes into tailor-made properties. Herein, we designed 3-methyl-1-(octyloxycarbonylmethyl)imidazolium bromide (C 8 EMeImBr), an ester-functionalized ionic liquid-based surfactant, which shows better surface active properties than the nonfunctionalized and conventional cationic surfactant and forms complex coacervates over the broad range of concentration with sodium salicylate (NaSal). Mono- and divalent cations as well as ionic strength, viscosity, and time-dependent stability of the coacervates had also been addressed in order to study whether these coacervates could work as microreactors to encapsulate various molecules. The anionic charged complex coacervates with sponge morphology and honey comb-like interior show good efficiency to sequester cationic dyes from water because of electrostatic and hydrophobic interactions and good encapsulation efficiency for curcumin owing to their high surface area. Results suggest that ionic liquid-based coacervates studied here could be exploited as a novel low-cost, effective, and environmentally benign alternative to sequester dyes from the contaminated water and their recovery.

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