Survival of SARS-COV-2 in untreated and treated wastewater—a review

In the current scenario of severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic, a review on the survival of this novel virus in treated and untreated wastewater is proposed. Other coronavirus species are known to survive in wastewater for days to weeks. Present data also shows that SARS-CoV-2 can be present in waste product generated by infected humans. This generated waste can be source of this virus to wastewater stream and being an enveloped virus can survive for longer period, which can be aerosolized and act as secondary transmission source to human exposure. The study reports different wastewater treatment process considered for the removal of this virus and a few studies have made with 100% removal. Thus, it is advisable to adopt the mechanisms, which report 100% removal of the virus from wastewater in order to stop the spread of the virus. Here we suggest this pathway of transmission should be rigorously studied, especially in countries like India, where minimum hygiene and sanitation can be tough to achieve because of high population density. We further suggest looking into major issues to be expected especially in developing countries and future researches need to be focused to minimize the transmission of this lethal virus.