ABSTRACT
The global COVID-19 pandemic has given rise to a plethora of ideas for modifying and redesigning public transportation and shared mobility vehicles to protect workers and riders from contracting the disease while traveling. This research seeks to inventory these strategies, and to organize and distill them in a way that enables researchers, policymakers, and public transport and mobility service operators to more systematically and efficiently evaluate them. Through literature search and analysis, the COVID-19 risk-mitigating vehicle design (CRVD) typology was developed, articulating 12 categories of strategies (e.g., Seating Configuration, Barriers) and 12 mechanisms (e.g., physical distancing, physical separation) by which the strategies may reduce COVID-19 spread. A secondary contribution of this research is to gather opinions of experts in fields related to COVID-19 and its transmission, about the identified CRVD strategies and mitigation mechanisms. The typology and expert opinions serve as a launching point for further innovation and research to evaluate the effectiveness of CRVD strategies and their relationship to user preferences and travel behavior, within and beyond the current context. Public transport and shared mobility service operators can use the CRVD typology as a reference, in conjunction with industry guidance and emerging research on strategy effectiveness, to aid decision-making in their continued response to the pandemic as well as for future planning.
ABSTRACT
The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the potential role that wastewater-based epidemiology can play in assessing aggregate community health. However, efforts to translate Sars-CoV-2 gene copy numbers obtained from wastewater samples into meaningful community health indicators are nascent. In this study, Sars-CoV-2 nucleocapsid (N) genes (N1 and N2) were quantified weekly using reverse transcriptase droplet digital PCR from two municipal wastewater treatment plants for approximately six months. Four biomarkers (ammonia, biological oxygen demand, creatinine, and human mitochondrial gene NADH dehydrogenase subunit 5) were quantified and used to normalize Sars-CoV-2 gene copy numbers. These were correlated to case data. Mitochondrial and creatinine normalization methods showed the strongest correlations throughout the studying indicating that human-specific biomarkers were better at normalizing wastewater data than ammonia or BOD. The human-specific biomarkers have different physical properties and corresponding behavior. As such, it may be important to use a suite of biomarkers to better align with the specific behavior of the epidemiological agent of interest. Copyright © 2021 Water Environment Federation