The ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has been a public health emergency of international concern. Although SARS-CoV-2 is considered to be mainly transmitted by inhalation of contaminated droplets and aerosols, SARS-CoV-2 is also detected in human feces and to a less extent in urine, and in raw wastewaters (to date viral RNA only) suggesting that other routes of infection may exist. Monitoring SARS-CoV-2 genomes in wastewaters has been proposed as a complementary approach for tracing the dynamics of virus transmission within human population connected to wastewater network. The understanding on SARS-CoV-2 transmission through wastewater surveillance, the development of epidemic modeling and the evaluation of SARS-CoV-2 transmission from contaminated wastewater are largely limited by our knowledge on viral RNA genome persistence and virus infectivity preservation in such an environment. Using an integrity based RT-qPCR assay this study led to the discovery that SARS-CoV-2 RNA can persist under several forms in wastewaters, which provides important information on the presence of SARS-CoV-2 in raw wastewaters and associated risk assessment.

由严重急性呼吸系统综合症冠状病毒 2 (SARS-CoV-2) 引起的 2019 年冠状病毒病 (COVID-19) 持续全球大流行已成为国际关注的突发公共卫生事件。尽管 SARS-CoV-2 被认为主要通过吸入受污染的飞沫和气溶胶传播，但在人类粪便中也检测到 SARS-CoV-2，在尿液和原废水中检测到的程度较低（迄今为止仅检测病毒 RNA）表明可能存在其他感染途径。监测废水中的 SARS-CoV-2 基因组已被提议作为一种补充方法，用于追踪与废水网络相连的人群中病毒传播的动态。通过废水监测了解 SARS-CoV-2 传播，流行病模型的开发和受污染废水对 SARS-CoV-2 传播的评估在很大程度上受到我们对这种环境中病毒 RNA 基因组持久性和病毒感染性保存的了解的限制。通过使用基于完整性的 RT-qPCR 分析，这项研究发现 SARS-CoV-2 RNA 可以在废水中以多种形式存在，这提供了有关原废水中 SARS-CoV-2 存在和相关风险评估的重要信息。