Searching if SARS-CoV-2 Subsists Following the Disinfection of Potable Water

Abstract

The manifestation of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS- CoV-2) in water and wastewater has newly been revealed. The stools and masks of the patients diagnosed with coronavirus disease (COVID-19) were viewed as the key way of CoV diffusion into aquatic medium. Most CoV kinds that attack human (likely for SARS-CoV-2) are frequently demobilized quickly in water (the endurance of human CoV 229E in water being 7 days at 23°C). Nevertheless, the endurance time of CoV in water strongly follows temperature, characteristics of water, concentration of suspended solids and organic matter, solution pH, and dose of disinfectant injected. The present disinfection technique of potable water can efficiently demobilize most of the bacterial and viral communities existing in water, particularly SARS-CoV-2 (more vulnerable to killing agent such as free chlorine). Scientists affirmed that SARS-CoV-2 RNA was observed in inflow wastewater and not found in outflow one. Even if the occurrence of SARS-CoV-2 in water influents has been affirmed, a fundamental interrogation is whether it could remain alive or contaminate following the disinfection method of potable water. Until now, only one study asserted that the infectivity of SARS-CoV-2 in water for persons was null founded on the absence of cytopathic effect in infectivity tests. Thus, more researches must be dedicated to the survival of SARS-CoV-2 in water and wastewater below various working circumstances (temperature and water matrix) and whether the diffusion from COVID-19-infected water to human is an emerging anxiety.