Wastewater Surveillance for SARS-CoV-2

Two open-access journal articles have been published this week, capturing the latest findings from WRF’s wastewater surveillance research efforts:

Reproducibility and sensitivity of 36 methods to quantify the SARS-CoV-2 genetic signal in raw wastewater: findings from an interlaboratory methods evaluation in the U.S. captures the findings of the WRF project, Interlaboratory and Methods Assessment of the SARS-CoV-2 Genetic Signal in Wastewater (5089). Co-sponsored by WRF and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, this research compared 36 standard methods for the detection of the SARS-CoV-2 genetic signal in wastewater, and is the first publication to comprehensively evaluate and compare the broad range of SARS-CoV-2 methods.

Survey of rapid development of environmental surveillance methods for SARS-CoV-2 detection in wastewater captures the results of a survey examining the development of methods for detecting SARSCoV-2 in wastewater. The survey was conducted in March 2020, in the lead-up to WRF’s International Water Research Summit on COVID-19. The results show how quickly the water sector acted to conduct and optimize methods for wastewater surveillance. In the coming months, WRF is considering whether to conduct a follow-up survey to track how these methods have changed as wastewater surveillance continues to be optimized across the globe.