Evaluation of RT-qPCR Primer-Probe Sets to Inform Public Health Interventions Based on COVID-19 Sewage Tests.

Sewage surveillance is increasingly employed as a supplementary tool for COVID-19 control. Experiences learnt from large-scale trials could guide better interpretation of the sewage data for public health interventions. Here, we compared the performance of seven commonly used primer-probe sets in RT-qPCR and evaluated the usefulness in the sewage surveillance program in Hong Kong.

Comparison of virus concentration methods and RNA extraction methods for SARS-CoV-2 wastewater surveillance.

Wastewater surveillance is a promising tool for population-level monitoring of the spread of infectious diseases, such as the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Different from clinical specimens, viruses in community-scale wastewater samples need to be concentrated before detection because viral RNA is highly diluted. The present study evaluated eleven different virus concentration methods for the detection of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in wastewater.