Abstract
Wastewater-based Epidemiological (WBE) surveillance offers a promising approach to assess the pandemic situation covering pre-symptomatic and asymptomatic cases in highly populated area under limited clinical tests. In the present study, we analyzed SARS-CoV-2 RNA in the influent wastewater samples (n = 43) from four wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) in Gandhinagar, India, during August 7th to September 30th, 2020. A total of 40 samples out of 43 were found positive i.e. having at least two genes of SARS-CoV-2. The average Ct values for S, N, and ORF 1 ab genes were 32.66, 33.03, and 33.95, respectively. Monthly variation depicted a substantial rise in the average copies of N (~120%) and ORF 1 ab (~38%) genes in the month of September as compared to August, while S-gene copies declined by 58% in September 2020. The SARS-CoV-2 genome concentration was higher in the month of September (~924.5 copies/L) than August (~897.5 copies/L), corresponding to a ~2.2-fold rise in the number of confirmed cases during the study period. Further, the percentage change in genome concentration level on a particular date was found in the lead of 1-2 weeks of time with respect to the official confirmed cases registered based on clinical tests on a temporal scale. The results profoundly unravel the potential of WBE surveillance to predict the fluctuation of COVID-19 cases to provide an early warning. Our study explicitly suggests that it is the need of hour that the wastewater surveillance must be included as an integral part of COVID-19 pandemic monitoring which can not only help the water authorities to identify the hotspots within a city but can provide up to 2 weeks of time lead for better tuning the management interventions.
Keywords: COVID-19; Coronavirus; Early warning system; SARS-CoV-2; Wastewater based epidemiology; Wastewater surveillance.
【저자키워드】 COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, coronavirus, wastewater surveillance, wastewater based epidemiology, Early warning system, 【초록키워드】 Treatment, pandemic, COVID-19 pandemic, Variation, Genome, India, wastewater, Surveillance, SARS-CoV-2 genome, pre-symptomatic, management, Asymptomatic case, SARS-CoV-2 RNA, plant, predict, Clinical tests, Concentration, S-gene, COVID-19 cases, lead, can not, water, confirmed case, COVID-19 case, confirmed cases, city, hour, study period, average, help, Registered, positive, hotspot, offer, approach, fluctuation, analyzed, identify, ORF, declined, clinical test, 【제목키워드】 Surveillance, SARS-CoV-2 RNA detection, Escalation,