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The role of catchment population size, data normalization, and chronology of public health interventions on wastewater-based COVID-19 viral trends
Abstract
The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic presented the most challenging global crisis in recent times. A pandemic caused by a novel pathogen such as SARS-CoV-2 necessitated the development of innovative techniques for the monitoring and surveillance of COVID-19 infections within communities. Wastewater surveillance (WWS) is recognized as a non-invasive, cost-effective, and valuable epidemiological tool to monitor the prevalence of COVID-19 infections in communities. Seven municipal wastewater sampling sites representing distinct sewershed communities were selected for the surveillance of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in Durham Region, Ontario, Canada over 8 months from March 2021 to October 2021. Viral RNA fragments of SARS-CoV-2 and the normalization target pepper mild mottle virus (PMMoV) were concentrated from wastewater influent using the PEG/NaCl superspeed centrifugation method and quantified using RT-qPCR. Strong significant correlations (Spearman's rs = 0.749 to 0.862, P
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