Wastewater Monitoring for COVID-19 Disease Surveillance 

Researchers around the world are currently exploring ways that wastewater samples can help us understand the spread of COVID-19 at a community scale.  The Water Science and Technology Board will host a panel discussion with experts on public health and wastewater monitoring to discuss the potential value of data on SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater to inform public health management and what is needed to build a useful surveillance network.

David Sedlak, UC Berkeley, Moderator

Panelists:

• Vincent Hill, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
• Barry Liner, Water Environment Federation
• Gertjan Medema, KWR Water Research Institute, Holland
• Nicole Rowan, Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment
• Krista Wigginton, University of Michigan

Key questions for presentations and discussions:

• How can data on SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater be useful as an indicator of COVID-19 cases in a locality?
• How has wastewater disease surveillance been useful with control of other viral pathogens? What problems have been encountered and what can we learn from these experiences for COVID-19?
• What is the capacity of current wastewater monitoring technologies for detecting COVID-19 disease outbreaks (i.e., what is the recovery efficiency, detection rate relative to the loading rates)?  What are the costs?
• What technical challenges need to be addressed before this strategy can be broadly implemented as a robust tool?  What are the highest priority needs?
• Where might such surveillance be appropriate?
• Is this a useful investment? If so, what would the nation need to do to rapidly invest in a useful surveillance network?