Login / Signup

Spatial and Temporal Trends of SARS-CoV-2 RNA from Wastewater Treatment Plants over 6 Weeks in Cape Town, South Africa.

Renée StreetAngela MatheeNoluxabiso MangwanaStephanie DiasJyoti Rajan SharmaPritika RamharackJohan LouwTarylee ReddyLudwig BrockerSwastika Surujlal-NaickerNatacha BerkowitzMokaba Shirley MalemaSizwe NkambuleCandice WebsterNomfundo Thobeka MahlangeniHuub GelderblomMongezi MdhluliGlenda GrayChristo John Frederick MullerRabia Johnson
Published in: International journal of environmental research and public health (2021)
Recent scientific trends have revealed that the collection and analysis of data on the occurrence and fate of SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater may serve as an early warning system for COVID-19. In South Africa, the first COVID-19 epicenter emerged in the Western Cape Province. The City of Cape Town, located in the Western Cape Province, has approximately 4 million inhabitants. This study reports on the monitoring of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in the wastewater of the City of Cape Town's wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) during the peak of the epidemic. During this period, the highest overall median viral RNA signal was observed in week 1 (9200 RNA copies/mL) and declined to 127 copies/mL in week 6. The overall decrease in the amount of detected viral SARS-CoV-2 RNA over the 6-week study period was associated with a declining number of newly identified COVID-19 cases in the city. The SARS-CoV-2 early warning system has now been established to detect future waves of COVID-19.
Keyphrases