RAPID: Tracking the Coronovirus in municipal wastewater

持续的COVID-19疫情对人类健康和经济造成重大影响。最关键的问题之一是确定谁被感染，以帮助了解疫情进展的速度。由于检测需求和能力之间持续不匹配，需要替代方法来评估疫情。监测疫情的进一步困难是由于大多数感染者不会立即出现COVID-19症状。这些问题限制了决策者确定其社区内何处发生疫情、疫情何时开始以及疫情何时减缓或停止的能力。该项目的目标是通过社区废水监测来发展监测疾病传播背后的科学，以解决这些限制。为了实现这一目标，该研究将在废水系统中测量引起COVID-19的病毒SARS-CoV 2。这种新的检测方法将使决策者能够在有症状的人要求检测之前评估潜在的疫情。此外，结果将有助于确定哪些社区有感染者。这对于评估COVID-19疫情是否因干预措施而减缓尤为重要。该项目的目标是通过废水监测确定COVID-19疫情的开始、持续时间、终止和位置。这项工作将测试两个假设：1）污水和雨水中的SARS-CoV 2病毒RNA浓度与社区总COVID-19感染的开始，进展和下降相关; 2）下水道系统网络内的空间采样可以隔离给定社区内COVID-19热点的位置。为了检验这些假设，将完成两个目标：1）每周使用逆转录酶液滴数字聚合酶链反应（RT-ddPCR）定量四个清洁水服务（CWS，华盛顿县，俄勒冈州）废水处理设施和雨水收集系统中的SARS-CoV 2 RNA。在污水处理厂，SARS-CoV 2 RNA将在初级澄清池的液体流出物和初级澄清池的固体中进行定量。在雨水收集系统中，SARS-CoV 2 RNA将从液体和固体部分中定量。2)SARS-CoV 2 RNA将使用RT-ddPCR在整个CWS下水道系统网络的12个选定采样点进行定量，每两周一次，直到2020年6月，在项目的剩余时间内每月一次。研究结果将被纳入一个包含公开人口数据库的GIS系统，以确定COVID-19热点和可能的潜在影响因素。这项工作的结果将证明使用集中处理设施收集的废水监测整个社区COVID-19疫情的可行性。这项工作的第二个结果将确定SARS-CoV 2 RNA如何在废水固体和液体部分之间分配。此外，这项工作将确定在COVID-19爆发期间，雨水是否是SARS-CoV 2 RNA的潜在储存库。 最后，这项工作将展示如何在整个下水道网络中进行采样，以确定COVID-19爆发的热点。如果成功，这项研究可能会导致其他类似的监测工作，为其他病毒爆发和保护国家的公共健康。这个奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被认为是值得支持的评估使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准。

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has caused major human health and economic impacts. One of the most critical questions is determining who is infected to help understand how rapidly the outbreak has progressed. With the continuing mismatch between testing need and capacity, alternative methods are needed to assess the outbreak. Further difficulty in monitoring the outbreak results from the fact that most infected individuals do not show COVID-19 symptoms immediately. These issues limit the ability of decision makers to determine where outbreaks are occurring within their communities, when outbreaks start, and when outbreaks slow or stop. The goal of this project is to address such limitations by developing the science behind monitoring the spread of the disease through community wastewater surveillance. To achieve this goal, the research will measure SARS-CoV2, the virus that causes COVID-19, in the wastewater system. This new detection method will allow for decision makers to assess potential outbreaks before symptomatic people request testing. In addition, results will help determine which communities have infected individuals. This is particularly important to assess whether the COVID-19 outbreak is slowing in response to interventions.The goal of this project is to determine the onset, duration, termination, and location of the COVID-19 outbreak via wastewater surveillance. This work will test two hypotheses that: 1) SARS-CoV2 virus RNA concentrations in sewage and stormwater correlates with the initiation, progression, and decline of a community’s aggregate COVID-19 infection; 2) Spatial sampling within a sewer system network can isolate the location of COVID-19 hotspots within a given community. To test these hypotheses, two objectives will be completed: 1) SARS-CoV2 RNA in four Clean Water Services (CWS, Washington County, Oregon) wastewater treatment facilities and stormwater collection systems will be quantified using reverse transcriptase droplet digital polymerase chain reaction (RT-ddPCR) on a weekly basis. In the wastewater treatment plants, SARS-CoV2 RNA will be quantified in liquid primary clarifier effluent and in primary clarifier solids. At stormwater collection systems, SARS-CoV2 RNA will be quantified from the liquid and solid fractions. 2) SARS-CoV2 RNA will be quantified using RT-ddPCR at 12 selected sampling points throughout the CWS sewer system network on a biweekly basis through June, 2020, and monthly for the remainder of the project. The results will be incorporated into a GIS system containing publicly available demographic databases to identify COVID-19 hotspots and possible underlying contributing factors. The results of this work will demonstrate the feasibility of using wastewater collected at a centralized treatment facility to monitor COVID-19 outbreaks for an entire community. A second outcome of this work will determine how SARS-CoV2 RNA partitions between wastewater solids and liquid factions. Additionally, this work will determine if stormwater is a potential reservoir of SARS-CoV2 RNA during a COVID-19 outbreak. Finally, this work will demonstrate how sampling throughout a sewer line network can identify COVID-19 outbreak hotspots. If successful, this research could lead to other similar monitoring efforts for other viral outbreaks and protect the public health of the Nation.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.