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Presence of SARS-Coronavirus-2 RNA in Sewage and Correlation with Reported COVID-19 Prevalence in the Early Stage of the Epidemic in The Netherlands

Open access
Medema, Gertjan, Heijnen, Leo, Elsinga, Goffe, Italiaander, Ronald, Brouwer, Anke·2020·Environmental Science & Technology Letters

Abstract

In the current COVID-19 pandemic, a significant proportion of cases shed SARS-Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) with their faeces. To determine if SARS-CoV-2 RNA was present in sewage during the emergence of COVID-19 in The Netherlands, sewage samples of six cities and the airport were tested using four qRT-PCR assays, three targeting the nucleocapsid gene (N1-N3) and one the envelope gene (E). No SARS-CoV-2 RNA was detected on February 6, 3 weeks before the first Dutch case was reported. On March 4/5, one or more gene fragments were detected in sewage of three sites, in concentrations of 2.6-30 gene copies per mL. In Amersfoort, N3 was detected in sewage 6 days before the first cases were reported. As the prevalence of COVID-19 in these cities increased in March, the RNA signal detected by each qRT-PCR assay increased, for N1-N3 up to 790-2200 gene copies per mL. This increase correlated significantly with the increase in reported COVID-19 prevalence. The detection of the virus RNA in sewage, even when the COVID-19 prevalence is low, and the correlation between concentration in sewage and reported prevalence of COVID-19, indicate that sewage surveillance could be a sensitive tool to monitor the circulation of the virus in the population.

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Metadata

Authors
Medema, G., Heijnen, L., Elsinga, G., Italiaander, R., & Brouwer, A.
Venue
Environmental Science & Technology Letters
Published
2020-05-20
Volume
7
Issue
7
Pages
511-516
ISSN
2328-8930 (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W3028152077
Cited by
1,747
References
4
FWCI
40.86
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
bronze

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CoChat. (2026). Citation check: Presence of SARS-Coronavirus-2 RNA in Sewage and Correlation with Reported COVID-19 Prevalence in the Early Stage of the Epidemic in The Netherlands. https://app.cochat.ai/papers/10.1021/acs.estlett.0c00357
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Medema, G., Heijnen, L., Elsinga, G., Italiaander, R., & Brouwer, A. (2020). Presence of SARS-Coronavirus-2 RNA in Sewage and Correlation with Reported COVID-19 Prevalence in the Early Stage of the Epidemic in The Netherlands. Environmental Science & Technology Letters. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.estlett.0c00357

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