A Simple Method to Detect SARS‐CoV‐2 in Wastewater at Low Virus Concentration

Abstract

Background. Since its initial appearance in December 2019, coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), has spread globally. Wastewater surveillance has been demonstrated as capable of identifying infection clusters early. The purpose of this study was to investigate a quick and simple method to detect SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater in Thailand during the early stages of the second outbreak wave when the prevalence of the disease and the virus concentration in wastewater were low. Methods. Wastewater samples were collected from a hospital caring for patients with COVID-19 and from 35 markets, two of which were associated with recently reported COVID-19 cases. Then, samples were concentrated by membrane filtering prior to SARS-CoV-2 detection by RT-qPCR. Results. SARS-CoV-2 RNA was detected in the wastewater samples from the hospital; the Ct values for the N, ORF1ab, and S genes progressively increased as the number of patients admitted to the treatment floor decreased. Notably, the ORF1ab and S genes were still detectable in wastewater even when only one patient with COVID-19 remained at the hospital. SARS-CoV-2 RNA was detected in the wastewater samples from fresh market where COVID-19 cases were reported. Conclusions. Our findings suggest that wastewater surveillance for SARS-CoV-2 is sensitive and can detect the virus even in places with a high ambient temperature and relatively low prevalence of COVID-19.

A Retrospective Analysis of Wastewater Confirms Dominant Circulation of SARS-CoV-2 Delta Variant in Nairobi, Kenya, between April 2021 and August 2021

“…[45]. This approach is mostly utilized in situations of low virus prevalence or during early periods of a pandemic [43] [46] [47]. Due to its low cost in comparison to clinical epidemiology, which requires individual patients to be swabbed, the approach may be used in low resource settings (where it will quickly indicate circulating strains in the general population) and may also be used routinely once the pandemic has established in the population [46].…”

The Detection of SARS-CoV2 Antigen in Wastewater Using an Automated Chemiluminescence Enzyme Immunoassay

“…RNA extract and RT-qPCR experiments targeting ORF1ab, spike regions (S), and the nucleocapsid (N) of the SARS-CoV-2 viral RNA were conducted and evaluated, as described in our previous work [14]. The detection of SARS-CoV-2 was classified as positive if it contained positive findings for two or more SARSCoV-2 target genes, designated at a cycle threshold (Ct) smaller than 37.…”

Spectrum of environmental surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 fragments: Questions, quests, and conquest

“…It is arguably agreed that WBE could outperformed clinical tests, served better on community and watershed scale, understood easily by the general public, health worker and policy makers, exhibited no conflict on its capability to predict a rise of active cases early, proved handy in hotspot zonation, curfew allocation, effectiveness of vaccine drive, as well as actually supplemented the individual testing during the various phases of pandemic. The main quests pertaining to environmental surveillance have been as follows 1 , 2 , 3∗ , 4∗ , 5 , 6∗ , 7 , 8∗ , 9∗ , 10 , 11∗ , 12∗ , 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 , 26∗ , 27∗ , 28∗ , 29 , 30 , 31∗∗ , 32 , 33 , 34 , 35 : Proof of the concept of wastewater surveillance for COVID-19 tracking. Profile tracking of active cases through the wastewater loading of SARS-CoV-2 RNA.…”

“…Even the absence of wastewater treatment plant could not stop researchers to implement WBE studies in the remote location against all the odds. Figure-1 depicts a simple word cloud of the most used word in the publications pertaining to the domain 1 , 2 , 3∗ , 4∗ , 5 , 6∗ , 7 , 8∗ , 9∗ , 10 , 11∗ , 12∗ , 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 , 26∗ , 27∗ , 28∗ , 29 , 30 , 31∗∗ , 32 , 33 , 34 , 35 , 36 , 37 , 38 , 39 , 40∗ , 41 , 42∗∗ , 43∗∗ , 44 , 45 , 46 , 47 , 48∗ , 49 , 50∗∗ , 51 .

Fig 1 A word cloud depicting the most frequently used keywords in the publications pertaining to the domain of WBE.

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