Abstract:
Prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 in the aquatic environment pertaining to the COVID-19 pandemic has been a global concern. Though SARS-CoV-2 is known as a respiratory virus, its detection in faecal matter and wastewater demonstrates its enteric involvement resulting in vulnerable aquatic environment. Here, we provide the latest updates on wastewater-based epidemiology, which is gaining interest in the current situation as a unique tool of surveillance and monitoring of the disease. Transport pathways with its migration through wastewater to surface and subsurface waters, probability of infectivity and ways of inactivation of SARS-CoV-2 are discussed in detail. Epidemiological models, especially compartmental projections, have been explained with an emphasis on its limitation and the assumptions on which the future predictions of disease propagation are based. Besides, this review covers various predictive models to track and project disease spread in the future and gives an insight into the probability of a future outbreak of the disease.