Artificial neural network-based estimation of COVID-19 case numbers and effective reproduction rate using wastewater-based epidemiology

Correlation between SARS-CoV-2 RNA concentration in wastewater and COVID-19 cases in community: A systematic review and meta-analysis

“…However, during the WBE surveillance, the wastewater temperature is generally dynamic. Although the wastewater temperature and HRT of the catchment were not reported in these studies included in the meta-analysis, a higher air temperature ( T a ) and larger catchment size were generally associated with higher wastewater temperature and longer HRT of the catchment, respectively ( Hart and Halden, 2020b , Jiang et al, 2022 , McCall et al, 2017 ). A higher fluctuation of air temperature (maximum temperature minus minimum temperature) during the study period could lead to higher variations of RNA loss (i.e.…”

Wastewater-Based Surveillance Is an Effective Tool for Trending COVID-19 Prevalence in Communities: A Study of 10 Major Communities for 17 Months in Alberta

“…The estimated incidence of COVID-19 was doubled over reported new cases from clinical testing results, allowing an assessment of potential asymptomatic and mild symptomatic individuals of COVID-19 that were not tested clinically. Nevertheless, the knowledge gaps in SARS-CoV-2 stool shedding kinetics resulted from infections of different variants and the variations of viral RNA degradations under different operating conditions of WWTPs limit the use of WBS SARS-CoV-2 to estimate the true COVID-19 disease burden for a community. ,, Sewage travel time before sampling is another factor to consider in terms of the potential degradation of SARS-CoV-2 RNA signal during transportation, which may affect the quantification of SARS-CoV-2 levels in wastewater during surveillance . Further study is needed to address the effect of hydraulic travel time and degradation of SARS-CoV-2 RNA on the correlation with clinically reported COVID-19 cases.…”

“…By July 29, 2021, asymptomatic testing was no longer recommended, contact tracing of positive cases would occur only when the cases were associated with an outbreak investigation, and quarantines were not legally required for asymptomatic COVID-19 close contacts in the communities . Since the decrease in clinical testing and contact tracing by public health policies, WBS SARS-CoV-2 has become a critical tool to monitor the overall COVID-19 disease burden of communities. ,− This study examined the relationship between WBS SARS-CoV-2 and new clinical COVID-19 cases in communities of various sizes by comparing a large number of COVID-19 clinical diagnostic testing results with SARS-CoV-2 RNA levels in wastewater from 12 wastewater treatment plants (WWTP), serving populations across the province of Alberta over a 17-month period. This long-term study aimed to (1) investigate the correlations between the levels of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in wastewater and new COVID-19 cases reported in defined WWTP-served populations for each pandemic wave, (2) identify any differences when SARS-CoV-2 RNA monitoring was applied to small versus large communities with differing geographic scales of sewer systems, and (3) provide further evidence to support WBS SARS-CoV-2 RNA as a tool for estimating the prevalence of COVID-19 infection at the community level effectively.…”

Wastewater-based prediction of COVID-19 cases using a highly sensitive SARS-CoV-2 RNA detection method combined with mathematical modeling

“…Numerous studies have attempted to estimate the actual COVID-19 prevalence or predict the subsequent outbreaks in a catchment via WBE using multiple regression models6, ( Tiwari, 2022 ), infectious mathematical models8, ( Nourbakhsh, 2022 ), or artificial intelligence ( Jiang, 2022 ). Although some previous studies have reported the potential of WBE as a 1- to 10-day leading indicator of clinically reported cases6, ( Wu, 2022 , Peccia, 2020 ), the validated framework remains undeveloped to estimate the number of infected individuals from SARS-CoV-2 RNA concentrations in wastewater ( C RNA ).…”