Wastewater monitoring (WM) of SARS-CoV-2 from sewers was applied throughout the world early in the COVID-19 pandemic. Sharing of protocols and experiences in WM of SARS-CoV-2 by national and international researchers and practitioners has been vital to ensuring the sensitivity and specificity of the methods. WM has been a valuable adjunct to human clinical testing, and when positive results occur in sewage, community testing has been increased. WM findings allow public health officials to track and respond to the impacts of loosening lockdown restrictions, demonstrating when return to normal social activities might occur without a resurgence of rapid community transmission, and they are particularly useful in areas with low human case numbers and/or low clinical testing rates. New research is required to address several practical knowledge gaps, for example, sampling protocols, prediction of case prevalence from viral numbers by modelling, and determination of detection limits. Communication to the Australian public of WM of SARS-CoV-2 has been via interactive, visual dashboards. Once SARS-CoV-2 vaccinations are introduced, WM could help track the underlying circulation of the virus in the population, the spread of known variants and its future evolution.

下水道的SARS-CoV-2废水监测（WM）在COVID-19大流行初期在世界范围内得到了应用。国内外研究人员和从业者共享SARS-CoV-2 WM中的协议和经验对确保方法的敏感性和特异性至关重要。WM已成为人体临床测试的重要辅助工具，当污水中出现阳性结果时，社区测试也将增加。WM的发现使公共卫生官员能够跟踪和应对放松的限制限制所产生的影响，表明何时可以在不恢复社区快速传播的情况下恢复正常的社会活动，这在人类病例数低和/或临床测试率低。需要进行新的研究来解决一些实际的知识空白，例如，采样协议，通过建模从病毒数量预测病例流行率以及确定检测限。SARS-CoV-2的WM已通过交互式的可视化仪表板与澳大利亚公众进行了交流。引入SARS-CoV-2疫苗后，WM可以帮助追踪人群中病毒的潜在循环，已知变异的扩散及其未来的演变。