Investigation of Antibiotic Resistome in Hospital Wastewater during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Is the Initial Phase of the Pandemic Contributing to Antimicrobial Resistance?

Since the COVID-19 pandemic started, there has been much speculation about how COVID-19 and antimicrobial resistance may be interconnected. In this study, untreated wastewater was sampled from Hospital A designated to treat COVID-19 patients during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic alongside Hospital B that did not receive any COVID-19 patients. Metagenomics was used to determine the relative abundance and mobile potential of antibiotic resistant genes (ARGs), prior to determining the correlation of ARGs with time/incidence of COVID-19.

Impact of Sediment Concentration on the Survival of Wastewater-Derived -Producing , and the Implications for Dispersal into Estuarine Waters.

The environmental cycling of antibiotic-resistant -producing following release from wastewater treatment plants is a major public health concern. This study aimed to (i) assess the impact of sediment concentrations on the rate of their inactivation following release from human wastewater into freshwater, and (ii) simulate their subsequent dispersal to the nearby coastline during a "worst-case" event where heavy rainfall coincided with high spring tide in the Conwy Estuary, North Wales. Freshwater microcosms of low, medium and high turbidity were inoculated with -producing , then exposed to ultraviolet (UV) radiation.