Sastry, M; Thom, M; Salazar, AM; Corti, D; Lanzavecchia, A; Taylor, G; Mascola, JR; Graham, BS; Kwong, PD; Zhang, B; Chen, Man; Joyce, MG; Kong, WPui; Chuang, GwoYu; Bogler, A; Morgenroth, CE; Bertuzzo, E; Wells, G; Kiperwas, HR; Horn, H; Negev, Ido; Zucker, I; Bar-Or, I; Moran-Gilad, J; Balcazar, JL; Packman, A; Bibby, K; Elimelech, M; Weisbrod, N; Nir, O; Sued, O; Gillor, O; Alvarez, PJ; Crameri, S; Arnon, S; Walker, S; Furman, A; Yaron, S; Nguyen, TH; Berchenko, Y; Hu, Y; Ronen, Z; Bar-Zeev, Edo; Gross, A; Kushmaro, A; Ronen, A; Dagot, C; Hill, C; Vaizel-Ohayon, D; ,
The COVID-19 pandemic has severely impacted public health and the worldwide economy. Converging evidence from the current pandemic, previous outbreaks and controlled experiments indicates that SARS-CoVs are present in wastewater for several days, leading to potential health risks via waterborne and aerosolized wastewater pathways. Conventional wastewater treatment provides only partial removal of SARS-CoVs, thus safe disposal or reuse will depend on the efficacy of final disinfection. This underscores the need for a risk assessment and management framework tailored to SARS-CoV-2 transmission via wastewater, including new tools for environmental surveillance, ensuring adequate disinfection as a component of overall COVID-19 pandemic containment.Converging evidence indicates that SARS-CoVs are present in wastewater for several days with potential health risks. This Review analyses knowledge about such risks as well as the potential spread of SARS-CoVs in waterborne, waterborne-aerosolized and waterborne-foodborne pathways during a pandemic.