Detection of environmental SARS-CoV-2 RNA in a high prevalence setting in Spain.

Since March 2020, Spain (along with many other countries) has been severely affected by the ongoing coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19) pandemic caused by the rapid spread of a new virus (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2; SARS-CoV-2). As part of global efforts to improve disease surveillance, we investigated how readily SARS-CoV-2 RNA could be detected in environmental samples collected from an isolated rural community in Spain with a high COVID-19 prevalence (6% of the population of 883 inhabitants). The first diagnosis of COVID-19-compatible symptoms in the village was recorded on 3 March 2020, and the last known active case resolved on 5 June 2020.