COVID-19 is an ongoing global pandemic caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). As of July 22^nd 2020, more than 14,9 million cases have been reported in more than 188 countries/territories, leading to more than 616000 deaths. One of the main challenges facing health authorities has been testing for the virus on a sufficiently comprehensive scale. The pandemic has been an impetus for the wastewater community as it has inspired scientists to look to wastewater to help fill in the gap of measuring the prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 within a given community. Testing the wastewater may serve as an early warning system allowing timely interventions. Although viral shedding varies among individuals and over the course of their infection, the sewage system can blend these variations into an average that represents the wider studied community. The urgent need has led to a lack of coherent reporting of data regarding the analysis, as these huge and remarkable efforts by the wastewater scientific community were made in a very short time. Important information on the analytical approach is often lacking, while there is still no optimisation of the methodology, including sampling, sample storage and concentration, RNA extraction and detection/quantification. This review aims at identifying the main issues for consideration, relating to the development of validated methodological protocols for the virus quantitative analysis in wastewater. Their inclusion will enable the methodological optimisation of SARS-CoV-2 wastewater analyses, transforming the wastewater infrastructure into a source of useful information for the health sector.

COVID-19 是由严重急性呼吸综合征冠状病毒 2 (SARS-CoV-2) 引起的持续全球大流行。截至2020年7月22日^，超过188个国家/地区报告了超过1490万例病例，导致超过616000人死亡。卫生当局面临的主要挑战之一是对病毒进行足够全面的检测。这场流行病一直是废水界的推动力，因为它激发科学家们寻找废水来帮助填补测量特定社区内 SARS-CoV-2 流行率的空白。废水检测可以作为早期预警系统，以便及时进行干预。尽管病毒排出量因人而异，并且在感染过程中有所不同，但污水系统可以将这些差异融合成代表更广泛研究社区的平均值。由于废水科学界在很短的时间内做出了这些巨大而显着的努力，迫切的需求导致缺乏连贯的分析数据报告。分析方法的重要信息往往缺乏，而且方法学仍然没有优化，包括采样、样品储存和浓缩、RNA 提取和检测/定量。本次综述旨在确定需要考虑的主要问题，这些问题涉及开发经过验证的废水病毒定量分析方法方案。它们的纳入将能够优化 SARS-CoV-2 废水分析的方法，将废水基础设施转变为卫生部门有用的信息来源。