Testing wastewater to detect severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 in communities

Abstract

Research groups around the world are starting to analyse whether wastewater surveillance is a useful tool to monitor the presence of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in communities. Reported studies from the Netherlands, USA, Australia and France have demonstrated that SARS-CoV-2 can be detected and quantified in wastewater, allowing the total number of community infections to be estimated as well as monitoring whether the virus has returned to a community after elimination. Further work is required to improve the quantification of virus, to better detect the virus at low levels and to ensure wastewater samples are representative of the community under surveillance.

Keywords: COVID-19; SARS-CoV-2; sewerage; surveillance; wastewater.