Wastewater treatment plant operators report high capacity to support wastewater surveillance for COVID-19 across New York State, USA.

Wastewater surveillance for infectious disease expanded greatly during the COVID-19 pandemic. As a collaboration between sanitation engineers and scientists, the most cost-effective deployment of wastewater surveillance routinely tests wastewater samples from wastewater treatment plants. To evaluate the capacity of treatment plants of different sizes and characteristics to participate in surveillance efforts, we developed and distributed a survey to New York State municipal treatment plant supervisors in the summer and fall of 2021.

High Sensitivity and Specificity of Dormitory-Level Wastewater Surveillance for COVID-19 during Fall Semester 2020 at Syracuse University, New York.

A residential building's wastewater presents a potential non-invasive method of surveilling numerous infectious diseases, including SARS-CoV-2. We analyzed wastewater from 16 different residential locations at Syracuse University (Syracuse, NY, USA) during fall semester 2020, testing for SARS-CoV-2 RNA twice weekly and compared the presence of clinical COVID-19 cases to detection of the viral RNA in wastewater. The sensitivity of wastewater surveillance to correctly identify dormitories with a case of COVID-19 ranged from 95% (95% confidence interval [CI] = 76-100%) on the same day as the case was diagnosed to 73% (95% CI = 53-92%), with 7 days lead time of wastewater.