Qualitative and quantitative detection of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in untreated wastewater in Western Cape Province, South Africa

A State-of-the-Art Scoping Review on SARS-CoV-2 in Sewage Focusing on the Potential of Wastewater Surveillance for the Monitoring of the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…Thirty-five studies reported the importance of SARS-CoV-2 detection in the environment as a tool to monitor the spread of the virus in the community (Agrawal et al, 2021a , Ahmed et al, 2021a , Ahmed et al, 2021b , Ahmed et al, 2020a , Albastaki et al, 2021 , Arora et al, 2020 , Bertrand et al, 2021 , Carrillo-Reyes et al, 2021 , D’Aoust et al 2021a , Davó et al, 2021 , Gerrity et al, 2021 , Gonçalves et al, 2021 , Gonzalez et al, 2020 , Graham et al, 2021 , Hasan et al, 2021 , Hokajarvi et al, 2021 , Johnson et al, 2021 , Kitamura et al, 2021 , Kumar et al, 2020 , Li et al, 2021a , Medema et al, 2020 , Miyani et al, 2020 , Mlejnkova et al, 2020 , Nasseri et al, 2021 , Petala et al, 2021 , Saththasivam et al, 2021 , Sharma et al, 2021 , Sherchan et al, 2020 , Tanhaei et al, 2021 , Wang et al, 2020 , Weidhaas et al, 2021 , Westhaus 2021 , Wu et al, 2020 , Wurtzer et al, 2020 , Zhou et al, 2021 ). Some limited their analyses to the presence or absence of the virus in wastewater without attempting to link wastewater data to epidemiological findings.…”

“…One study performed in South Africa monitored different WWTPs located in different areas in a single collection date, comparing quantitative data with the number of positive COVID-19 cases detected in the areas at the time and found that SARS-CoV-2 virus titers were in line with the number of positive COVID-19 cases reported in the catchment areas (Johnson et al, 2021 ).…”

Spatial and Temporal Trends of SARS-CoV-2 RNA from Wastewater Treatment Plants over 6 Weeks in Cape Town, South Africa

“…A modified method described by Peccia et al [8] and optimized by Johnson et al [9] was used in order to extract the total RNA using the Qiagen RNeasy ® PowerSoil ® Kit, as per the manufacturer's instructions (Qiagen, Hilden, Germany). Briefly, 100 mL of influent wastewater was spun down at 2500× g for 20 min, whereafter 2-5 mL of the resultant supernatant pellet was added to a 15 mL PowerBead ® Tube containing a lysis buffer to inactivate the virus and stabilize the viral RNA.…”

COVID-19 vaccine roll-out in South Africa: The added value of wastewater surveillance for SARS-CoV-2

“…[8] In SA, a key milestone was both confirming the presence of SARS-CoV-2 viral RNA (qualitative analysis) and determining the RNA copy number of SARS-CoV-2 viral RNA by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (quantitative analysis). [9] The South African Medical Research Council's SARS-CoV-2 wastewater research and surveillance programme has set up wastewater monitoring in four provinces, namely Eastern Cape, Western Cape, Limpopo and Gauteng. The monitoring currently covers over 45 wastewater treatment plants with a total catchment population of ~4 million inhabitants.…”