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Wastewater and surface monitoring to detect COVID-19 in elementary school settings: The Safer at School Early Alert project
Preprint
in English
| medRxiv
| ID: ppmedrxiv-21265226
ABSTRACT
Schools are high-risk settings for SARS-CoV-2 transmission, but necessary for childrens educational and social-emotional wellbeing. While wastewater monitoring has been implemented to mitigate outbreak risk in universities and residential settings, its effectiveness in community K-12 sites is unknown. We implemented a wastewater and surface monitoring system to detect SARS-CoV-2 in nine elementary schools in San Diego County. Ninety-three percent of identified cases were associated with either a positive wastewater or surface sample; 67% were associated with a positive wastewater sample, and 40% were associated with a positive surface sample. The techniques we utilized allowed for near-complete genomic sequencing of wastewater and surface samples. Passive environmental surveillance can complement approaches that require individual consent, particularly in communities with limited access and/or high rates of testing hesitancy. One sentence summaryPassive wastewater and surface environmental surveillance can identify up to 93% of on-campus COVID-19 cases in public elementary schools; positive samples can be sequenced to monitor for variants of concerns with neighborhood level resolution.
cc_by_nc_nd
Full text:
Available
Collection:
Preprints
Database:
medRxiv
Type of study:
Prognostic study
Language:
English
Year:
2021
Document type:
Preprint