Evaluation of lockdown effect on SARS-CoV-2 dynamics through viral genome quantification in waste water, Greater Paris, France, 5 March to 23 April 2020

Abstract

Introduction Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is the etiological agent of coronavirus disease (COVID-19). People infected with SARS-CoV-2 may exhibit no or mild non-specific symptoms; thus, they may contribute to silent circulation of the virus among humans. Since SARS-CoV-2 RNA can be detected in stool samples, monitoring SARS-CoV-2 RNA in waste water (WW) has been proposed as a complementary tool to investigate virus circulation in human populations. Aim To test if the quantification of SARS-CoV-2 genomes in WW correlates with the number of symptomatic or non-symptomatic carriers. Method We performed a time-course quantitative analysis of SARS-CoV-2 by RT-qPCR in raw WW samples collected from several major WW treatment plants in Greater Paris. The study period was 5 March to 23 April 2020, including the lockdown period in France (from 17 March). Results We showed that the increase of genome units in raw WW accurately followed the increase of human COVID-19 cases observed at the regional level. Of note, the viral genome could be detected before the epidemic grew massively (around 8 March). Equally importantly, a marked decrease in the quantities of genome units was observed concomitantly with the reduction in the number of new COVID-19 cases, 29 days following the lockdown. Conclusion This work suggests that a quantitative monitoring of SARS-CoV-2 genomes in WW could generate important additional information for improved monitoring of SARS-CoV-2 circulation at local or regional levels and emphasises the role of WW-based epidemiology.

The Fatty Acid Lipid Metabolism Nexus in COVID-19

“…Early presentation of gastrointestinal symptoms recently seen in COVID-19 patients was common in SARS-2003 patients; these often include diarrhea, nausea, vomiting and abdominal pain [4][5][6][7][8]. Further, Viruses 2021, 13, 90 2 of 18 viable virus was detectable in patient stool samples and in sewage, which can contribute to community spread [6,[9][10][11][12]. As noted by the increase in serum alanine aminotransferase, aspartate transaminase and glycemic index, SARS-CoV patients develop mild to severe liver or pancreatic dysfunction as the disease progresses [13][14][15].…”

Monitoring SARS-CoV-2 Circulation and Diversity through Community Wastewater Sequencing, the Netherlands and Belgium

“…

Recently, the Water Research Institute in the Netherlands and other groups have demonstrated temporal correlations between SARS-CoV-2 RNA titers in sewage and the number of reported cases in a city or county when >26 gene copies per liter could be detected (14,(19)(20)(21). Therefore, sewage testing is currently considered globally to be an adjunct to patient-based surveillance and demonstrates promise as an early warning indicator of increasing virus circulation.

…”

Viral RNA in City Wastewater as a Key Indicator of COVID-19 Recrudescence and Containment Measures Effectiveness

“…Recently, several studies have explored the detection and quantification of SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater around the world, such as in the Netherlands (Medema et al, 2020), France (Wurtzer et al, 2020), United States (Wu et al, 2020), Australia (Ahmed et al, 2020), Italy (La Rosa et al, 2020), and Germany (Westhaus et al, 2021). However, few have attempted to establish a correlation between viral load in the wastewater and the number of infected patients (Ahmed et al, 2020;Chavarria-Miró et al, 2021;Medema et al, 2020;Randazzo et al, 2020;Trottier et al, 2020;Vallejo et al, 2020;Wu et al, 2020;Wurtzer et al, 2020).…”

“…Indeed, wastewater-based epidemiology approach has already been used to follow disease outbreak, as previously demonstrated for enteric viruses, such as poliovirus or hepatitis virus (Asghar et al, 2014;Hellmér et al, 2014) and could also been used to monitor SARS-CoV-2 clusters (Carducci et al, 2020;Randazzo et al, 2020). Detection of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in wastewater samples has already been reported in many countries (Ahmed et al, 2020;Albastaki et al, 2020;Alpaslan Kocamemi et al, 2020;Bar Or et al, 2020;Haramoto et al, 2020;Hasan et al, 2020;La Rosa et al, 2020;Medema et al, 2020;Randazzo et al, 2020;Wang et al, 2020;Wu et al, 2020;Wurtzer et al, 2020).…”