Abstract
The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic is currently posing a significant threat to the world’s public health and social-economic growth. Despite the rigorous international lockdown and quarantine efforts, the rate of COVID-19 infectious cases remains exceptionally high. Notwithstanding, the end route of COVID-19, together with emerging contaminants’ (antibiotics, pharmaceuticals, nanoplastics, pesticide, etc.) occurrence in wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs), poses a great challenge in wastewater settings. Therefore, this paper seeks to review an inter-disciplinary and technological approach as a roadmap for the water and wastewater settings to help fight COVID-19 and future waves of pandemics. This study explored wastewater–based epidemiology (WBE) potential for detecting SARS-CoV-2 and its metabolites in wastewater settings. Furthermore, the prospects of integrating innovative and robust technologies such as magnetic nanotechnology, advanced oxidation process, biosensors, and membrane bioreactors into the WWTPs to augment the risk of COVID-19’s environmental impacts and improve water quality are discussed. In terms of the diagnostics of COVID-19, potential biosensors such as sample–answer chip-, paper- and nanomaterials-based biosensors are highlighted. In conclusion, sewage treatment systems, together with magnetic biosensor diagnostics and WBE, could be a possible way to keep a surveillance on the outbreak of COVID-19 in communities around the globe, thereby identifying hotspots and curbing the diagnostic costs of testing. Photocatalysis prospects are high to inactivate coronavirus, and therefore a focus on safe nanotechnology and bioengineering should be encouraged.
Highlights
The severe and acute respiratory syndrome, coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2), has been an etiological agent of COVID-19, which, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), is transmitted via respiratory droplets and contact routes [1,2]
The study in addition identifies magnetic nanotechnology, biosensors, and membrane bioreactors as progressive and robust techniques to enhance the purification of wastewater whilst at the same time minimizing the environmental impacts of COVID-19
This paper reviewed recent literature on the fate of COVID-19 in wastewater treatment systems and its emerging wastewater treatment technologies
Summary
The severe and acute respiratory syndrome, coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2), has been an etiological agent of COVID-19, which, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), is transmitted via respiratory droplets and contact routes [1,2]. Over the past years, over 1500 pathogens have been discovered, with almost 40 of them emerging from communicable diseases with a major impact on communities [7,9] These include severe and acute respiratory syndromes (SARS) (2002–2003), H1N1flu/swine flu (2009–2010), Ebola (2014–2016), Zika virus (2015–2016), and COVID-19 (2019–2020) [9]. As a direct consequence of COVID-19 to the global economic system, countries along with South Africa and the United States of America are expected to suffer from huge financial losses of billions of dollars because of revenue discounts of their water utilities [13] Upon this foundation and many extra anticipated in days to return, studies into figuring out and developing a strong era within the water and wastewater remedy settings to diminish the COVID-19 complications are useful. The study in addition identifies magnetic nanotechnology, biosensors, and membrane bioreactors as progressive and robust techniques to enhance the purification of wastewater whilst at the same time minimizing the environmental impacts of COVID-19
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