Detection of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in wastewater and importance of population size assessment in smaller cities: An exploratory case study from two municipalities in Latvia
“…Additionally, the effect of mobility (e.g. one infected person entering or leaving the sewershed) is stronger [42]. Second, consistent with recommendations from the US CDC [43], we found that sewersheds with fewer than 2 samples per week tended to produce weaker correlations, and these were often smaller treatment facilities.…”
Section: The Correlations Between Wastewater and Case Data Differed B...supporting
During the COVID-19 pandemic, wastewater-based surveillance has been used alongside diagnostic testing to monitor infection rates. With the decline in cases reported to public health departments due to at-home testing, wastewater data may serve as the primary input for epidemiological models, but training these models is not straightforward. We explored factors affecting noise and bias in the ratio between wastewater and case data collected in 26 sewersheds in California from October 2020 to March 2022. The strength of the relationship between wastewater and case data appeared dependent on sampling frequency and population size, but was not increased by wastewater normalization to flow rate or case count normalization to testing rates. Additionally, the lead and lag times between wastewater and case data varied over time and space, and the ratio of log-transformed individual cases to wastewater concentrations changed over time. This ratio increased sequentially in the Epsilon/Alpha, Delta, and Omicron BA.1 variant surges of COVID-19 and was also related to the diagnostic testing rate. Based on this analysis, we present a framework of scenarios describing the dynamics of the case to wastewater ratio to aid in data handling decisions for ongoing modeling efforts.
“…Additionally, the effect of mobility (e.g. one infected person entering or leaving the sewershed) is stronger [42]. Second, consistent with recommendations from the US CDC [43], we found that sewersheds with fewer than 2 samples per week tended to produce weaker correlations, and these were often smaller treatment facilities.…”
Section: The Correlations Between Wastewater and Case Data Differed B...supporting
During the COVID-19 pandemic, wastewater-based surveillance has been used alongside diagnostic testing to monitor infection rates. With the decline in cases reported to public health departments due to at-home testing, wastewater data may serve as the primary input for epidemiological models, but training these models is not straightforward. We explored factors affecting noise and bias in the ratio between wastewater and case data collected in 26 sewersheds in California from October 2020 to March 2022. The strength of the relationship between wastewater and case data appeared dependent on sampling frequency and population size, but was not increased by wastewater normalization to flow rate or case count normalization to testing rates. Additionally, the lead and lag times between wastewater and case data varied over time and space, and the ratio of log-transformed individual cases to wastewater concentrations changed over time. This ratio increased sequentially in the Epsilon/Alpha, Delta, and Omicron BA.1 variant surges of COVID-19 and was also related to the diagnostic testing rate. Based on this analysis, we present a framework of scenarios describing the dynamics of the case to wastewater ratio to aid in data handling decisions for ongoing modeling efforts.
“…Additionally, the effect of mobility (e.g. one infected person entering or leaving the sewershed) ( Gudra et al, 2022 ), variability in personal water use, and dynamic viral shedding profiles ( de Araújo et al, 2023 ) are stronger. Fig.…”
“…To our knowledge, only one previous study examines population mobility data in a microbial WWS context, where population mobility was accounted for with cell phone data and a validated biomarker (i.e., 5-HIAA) to provide accurate representation of population. 32 Higher levels of 5-HIAA were found on weekdays, when there were more people in the sewershed based on mobile phone data compared to weekends. 5-HIAA-normalized SARS-CoV-2 wastewater data were also reported to better correlate with COVID-19 cases.…”
Section: The Ability To Capture a Signal From Specific Locations Is I...mentioning
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