Cell Reports Medicine
Volume 1, Issue 6, 22 September 2020, 100098
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Report
Temporal Detection and Phylogenetic Assessment of SARS-CoV-2 in Municipal Wastewater

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xcrm.2020.100098Get rights and content
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Highlights

  • SARS-CoV-2 RNA concentrations in wastewater correlate with COVID-19 epidemiology

  • SARS-CoV-2 RNA levels in wastewater follow symptom onset by 5–8 days

  • SARS-CoV-2 RNA levels in wastewater precede clinical PCR test results by 2–4 days

  • SARS-CoV-2 genome from wastewater can trace phylogenetic origin

Summary

SARS-CoV-2 has recently been detected in feces, which indicates that wastewater may be used to monitor viral prevalence in the community. Here, we use RT-qPCR to monitor wastewater for SARS-CoV-2 RNA over a 74-day time course. We show that changes in SARS-CoV-2 RNA concentrations follow symptom onset gathered by retrospective interview of patients but precedes clinical test results. In addition, we determine a nearly complete (98.5%) SARS-CoV-2 genome sequence from wastewater and use phylogenetic analysis to infer viral ancestry. Collectively, this work demonstrates how wastewater can be used as a proxy to monitor viral prevalence in the community and how genome sequencing can be used for genotyping viral strains circulating in a community.

Keywords

SARS-CoV-2
COVID-19
wastewater-based epidemiology
genome sequencing

Cited by (0)

3

These authors contributed equally

4

Twitter: @artemnemudryi

5

Twitter: @WiedenheftLab

6

Lead Contact