Making Waves Perspectives of Modelling and Monitoring of SARS-CoV-2 in Aquatic Environment for COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 in the aquatic environment pertaining to the COVID-19 pandemic has been a global concern. Though SARS-CoV-2 is known as a respiratory virus, its detection in faecal matter and wastewater demonstrates its enteric involvement resulting in vulnerable aquatic environment. Here, we provide the latest updates on wastewater-based epidemiology, which is gaining interest in the current situation as a unique tool of surveillance and monitoring of the disease. Transport pathways with its migration through wastewater to surface and subsurface waters, probability of infectivity and ways of inactivation of SARS-CoV-2 are discussed in detail. Epidemiological models, especially compartmental projections, have been explained with an emphasis on its limitation and the assumptions on which the future predictions of disease propagation are based. Besides, this review covers various predictive models to track and project disease spread in the future and gives an insight into the probability of a future outbreak of the disease.

Novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic: From transmission to control with an interdisciplinary vision

“…Remarkably, during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, investigations from both developed and developing countries are continuously being experimenting to measure the novel SARS-CoV-2 genetic material (RNA) in untreated WW, SS, and in faecal samples using various molecular biology approach/tools ( Ahmed et al, 2020a , 2020b ; Bar-Or et al, 2020 Haramoto et al, 2020 ; Kumar et al, 2020a , Kumar et al, 2020b ; La Rosa et al, 2020a , La Rosa et al, 2020b ; Medema et al, 2020 ; Nemudryi et al, 2020 ; Polo et al, 2020 ; Randazzo et al, 2020 ; Rimoldi et al, 2020 ; Wei et al, 2020a ; Wu et al, 2020b ; Kumar et al, 2020 , 2020bib_Kumar_et_al_2020 ). Based upon the verified previous investigation by many researchers (Carducci et al, 2020; Kitajima et al, 2020 ; La Rosa et al, 2020a ), a portion of the shortcoming of outcomes on this problem is given the difficulty of searching SARS-CoV-2 RNA within these unique dimensions since there is currently no legally registered scientifically testable process.…”

High‐throughput molecular analyses of microbiomes as a tool to monitor the wellbeing of aquatic environments

“…Finally, in the current Sars-CoV2 pandemic situation, the importance of viruses as infective agents and the search for potential viral biomarkers to monitor the quality of waters has become even more urgent. Thus, levels of Sars-CoV2 in wastewaters have proven to be an excellent bioindicator for the COVID infection detection of the global population and to model and monitor the pandemic (Kumar et al, 2020;Peccia et al, 2020;Polo et al, 2020).…”

First comparison of conventional activated sludge versus root-zone treatment for SARS-CoV-2 RNA removal from wastewaters: Statistical and temporal significance

“…At this juncture, when the world is facing a second winter after being threatened for the entire year with Corona Virus Disease (COVID)-19, cases are surging, with over 40 million infections and >1 million deaths [1] . To date, we have gained knowledge on many aspects of Severe Acute Respiratory Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), especially on transmission, monitoring, analytical techniques, prognosis, diagnosis, models, and management aspects [2] , [3] , [4] , [5] , [6] , [7] , [8] , [9] , [10] , [11] , [12] , [13] , [14] , [15] , [16] , [17] , [18] , [19] , [20] , [21] , [22] . However, the infectivity of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in wastewater, owing to viral shedding of infected symptomatic/asymptomatic patients, and their transmission remains under debate [23] .…”