SARS-CoV-2 RNA and N Antigen Quantification via Wastewater at the Campus Level, Building Cluster Level, and Individual-Building Level

ABSTRACT

Monitoring wastewater for SARS-CoV-2 from populations smaller than those served by wastewater treatment plants may help identify small spatial areas (subsewersheds) where COVID-19 infections are present. We sampled wastewater from three nested locations with different sized populations within the same sewer network at a university campus and quantified SARS-CoV-2 RNA using reverse transcriptase droplet digital polymerase chain reaction (PCR). SARS-CoV-2 RNA concentrations and/or concentrations normalized by PMMoV were positively associated with laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 cases for both the sewershed level and the subsewershed level. We also used an antigen-based assay to detect the nucleocapsid (N) antigen from SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater samples at the sewershed level. The N antigen was regularly detected at the sewershed level, but the results were not associated with either laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 cases or SARS-CoV-2 RNA concentrations. The results of this study indicate that wastewater monitoring based on quantification of SARS-CoV-2 RNA using PCR-based methods is associated with COVID-19 cases at multiple geographic scales within the subsewershed level and can serve to aid the public health response.