Sustainable development goals against COVID-19: the performance of brazilian cities in SDGS 3 and 6 and their reflection on the pandemic

Abstract

Several researchers have detected the viral genome of SARS‐CoV‐2 in the stools of people (symptomatic or not) diagnosed with coronavirus disease‐2019 (COVID‐19). In domestic wastewater, this concentration can be between 19 and 5.5 x 106

viral genomes per liter of wastewater. Wastewater‐based epidemiology (WBE) starts from the premise that it is possible to estimate the number of people infected by the new coronavirus within a given population group, by analyzing the amount of viral genome present in the wastewater produced by these people. This paper presents the procedures to estimate the number of COVID‐19 cases from raw wastewater samples, discusses the main aspects that involve the WBE assay and presents a discussion based on the case studies applied to COVID‐19 in some countries. Finally, there is a final discussion about the current situation and the main challenges for WBE to be applied efficiently for COVID‐19, as an alternative to massive human testing, especially for developing and underdeveloped countries.