Abstract:
Since the outbreak of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19), severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has been identified in wastewater frequently and globally. Based on the wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE), wastewater surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 can be an important complement to the population surveillance of COVID-19. The access of nucleic acid concentration and sequence mutation analysis can aid in the early warning of disease outbreak, the early identification of asymptomatic cases, the assessment for infection scale, the prediction of pandemic trend, the identification of viral source, and the scientific basis for prevention and control policymaking. Accordingly, in this view, we systematically summarized the recent research progresses regarding the source, survival, and detection of SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater worldwide. The importance of wastewater surveillance and the global surveillance projects and their progresses as well as the remaining scientific issues were introduced, shedding lights on the scientific prevention and control of COVID-19 in the faces of current or future pandemics in China.