Detection of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in hospital wastewater from a low COVID-19 disease prevalence area

Highlights

• The first study in Slovenia that reports the detection of SARS-CoV-2 in untreated wastewater.

• 66.7% (10/15) of untreated hospital wastewater samples tested positive for at least one SARS-CoV-2 RT-qPCR target.

• SARS-CoV-2 RNA was detected in untreated hospital wastewater when only one COVID-19 patient was hospitalized.

Abstract

Previous studies on SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV reported the detection of viral RNA in the stool of both symptomatic and asymptomatic individuals. These clinical observations suggest that municipal and hospital wastewater from affected communities may contain SARS-CoV-2 RNA. Recent studies have also reported the presence of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in human feces. Wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) is a promising approach to understand the prevalence of viruses in a given catchment population, as wastewater contains viruses from symptomatic and asymptomatic individuals. The current study reports the first detection of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in untreated wastewater in Slovenia. Two sizes of centrifugal filters were tested: 30 kDa and 10 kDA AMICON® Ultra-15 Centrifugal Filters, where 10 kDA resulted in a higher concentration factor and higher recovery efficiency. The results in hospital wastewater show that WBE can be used for monitoring COVID −19 and could be applied in municipal wastewater treatment plants as a potential complementary tool for public health monitoring at population level.