Post-lockdown detection of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in the wastewater of Montpellier, France

Abstract

The evolution of the COVID-19 pandemic can be monitored through the detection of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in sewage. Here, we measured the amount of SARS-CoV-2 RNA at the inflow point of the main waste water treatment plant (WWTP) of Montpellier, France. We collected samples 4 days before the end of lockdown and up to 70 days post-lockdown. We detected increased amounts of SARS-CoV-2 RNA at the WWTP from mid-June on, whereas the number of new COVID-19 cases in the area started increasing a couple of weeks later. Future epidemiologic investigations shall explain such asynchronous finding.

Catching a resurgence: Increase in SARS-CoV-2 viral RNA identified in wastewater 48 h before COVID-19 clinical tests and 96 h before hospitalizations

“…These findings are in agreement with reported observations from previous studies ( D'Aoust et al, 2021 ; Nemudryi et al, 2020 ; Peccia et al, 2020 ). This study, as opposed to an earlier study in the same region ( D'Aoust et al, 2021 ), demonstrates that strong correlations do in fact exist between viral RNA signal and the epidemiological metric of clinical daily new COVID-19 cases, as supported by several other studies ( Hart and Halden, 2020 ; Michael-Kordatou et al, 2020 ; Trottier et al, 2020 ; Wu et al, 2020 ). The moderate correlations between viral RNA signal and clinical daily new COVID-19 cases in previous work was largely attributed to inadequate resources to achieve a developed clinical testing framework early in the pandemic (lower daily # of tests).…”

Catching a resurgence: Increase in SARS-CoV-2 viral RNA identified in wastewater 48 hours before COVID-19 clinical tests and 96 hours before hospitalizations

“…These findings are in agreement with reported observations from previous studies (D'Aoust et al, 2020;Nemudryi et al, 2020;Peccia et al, 2020). This study, as opposed to an earlier study in the same region (D'Aoust et al, 2020), demonstrates that strong correlations do in fact exist between viral RNA signal and the epidemiological metric of clinical daily new COVID-19 cases, as supported by several other studies (Hart and Halden, 2020;Michael-Kordatou et al, 2020;Trottier et al, 2020;Wu et al, 2020 Figure 2 a and e). Table 1).…”

Epidemiological surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 by genome quantification in wastewater applied to a city in the northeast of France: Comparison of ultrafiltration- and protein precipitation-based methods

“…The procedure combining ultrafiltration, phenol-chloroform purification, and additional purification of the RNA extracts was chosen to monitor the concentrations of the SARS-CoV-2 genome in wastewater during longitudinal wastewater sampling. Our approach based on ultrafiltration may be performed with different devices such as Centricon® ( Ahmed et al, 2020 ; Medema et al, 2020 ), Corning® Spin-X® UF ( Nemudryi et al, 2020 ) or Vivaspin® ( Trottier et al, 2020 ) concentrators.…”

“…The methodologies that have been used to date are highly diverse. The concentration methods were based on various principles, including ultrafiltration ( Ahmed et al, 2020 ; Medema et al, 2020 ; Nemudryi et al, 2020 ; Trottier et al, 2020 ); protein precipitation ( Kumar et al, 2020 ; La Rosa et al, 2020b ; Wu et al, 2020a ); electronegative membranes ( Ahmed et al, 2020 ) and ultracentrifugation ( Wurtzer et al, 2020 ). Recovery rates are currently unknown or extrapolated from those of similar viruses such as porcine epidemic diarrhoea virus (PEDV) and mengovirus (MgV) ( Randazzo et al, 2020 ).…”