SARS-CoV-2 on Environmental Surface

Wastewater surveillance rose to popularity for its ability to provide a non-invasive, cost-effective, and efficient method for monitoring community-level trends. Similarly, environmental surveillance of high-touch objects is less invasive, less costly than clinical testing, and promises less bias than sampling individuals, especially for pathogens with a high proportion of asymptomatic infections. Targeted sampling of high-touch surfaces can be a potential pandemic surveillance strategy by identifying recent locations of currently infectious individuals (e.g., buildings or rooms), providing insight into infection load in a community setting. Genome sequencing of the environmental surface samples was able to identify SARS-CoV-2 variants circulating in the university and state.