The Science of the total environment
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Sci. Total Environ. · Dec 2020
Comparative infection modeling and control of COVID-19 transmission patterns in China, South Korea, Italy and Iran.
The COVID-19 has become a pandemic. The timing and nature of the COVID-19 pandemic response and control varied among the regions and from one country to the other, and their role in affecting the spread of the disease has been debated. The focus of this work is on the early phase of the disease when control measures can be most effective. ⋯ The surface air temperature showed stronger association with transmission rate of COVID-19 than surface relative humidity. On the basis of these findings, disease control measures were shown to be particularly effective in flattening and shrinking the COVID-10 case curve, which could effectively reduce the severity of the disease and mitigate medical burden. The proposed empirical law and the SEIR-temporal moving window model can also be used to study infectious disease outbreaks worldwide.
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Sci. Total Environ. · Dec 2020
Impacts of geographic factors and population density on the COVID-19 spreading under the lockdown policies of China.
The outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic has a high spreading rate and a high fatality rate. To control the rapid spreading of COVID-19 virus, Chinese government ordered lockdown policies since late January 2020. The aims of this study are to quantify the relationship between geographic information (i.e., latitude, longitude and altitude) and cumulative infected population, and to unveil the importance of the population density in the spreading speed during the lockdown. ⋯ Overall, our findings from the models showed a negative correlation between the provincial daily cumulative COVID-19 infected number and latitude/altitude. In addition, population density is not an important factor in COVID-19 spreading under strict lockdown policies. Our study suggests that lockdown policies of China can effectively restrict COVID-19 spreading speed.
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Sci. Total Environ. · Dec 2020
First proof of the capability of wastewater surveillance for COVID-19 in India through detection of genetic material of SARS-CoV-2.
We made the first ever successful effort in India to detect the genetic material of SARS-CoV-2 viruses to understand the capability and application of wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) surveillance in India. Sampling was carried out on 8 and 27 May 2020 at the Old Pirana Waste Water Treatment Plant (WWTP) at Ahmedabad, Gujarat that receives effluent from Civil Hospital treating COVID-19 patients. All three, i.e. ⋯ However, temporal changes in SARS-CoV-2 RNA concentrations need to be substantiated further from the perspectives of daily and short-term changes of SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater through long-term monitoring. The study results SARS-CoV-2 will assist concerned authorities and policymakers to formulate and/or upgrade COVID-19 surveillance to have a more explicit picture of the pandemic curve. While infectivity of SARS-CoV-2 through the excreted viral genetic material in the aquatic environment is still being debated, the presence and detection of genes in wastewater systems makes a strong case for the environmental surveillance of the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Sci. Total Environ. · Nov 2020
ReviewSARS-CoV-2 in the environment: Modes of transmission, early detection and potential role of pollutions.
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is spreading globally having a profound effect on lives of millions of people, causing worldwide economic disruption. Curbing the spread of COVID-19 and future pandemics may be accomplished through understanding the environmental context of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and adoption of effective detection tools and mitigation policies. This article aims to examine the latest investigations on SARS-CoV-2 plausible environmental transmission modes, employment of wastewater surveillance for early detection of COVID-19, and elucidating the role of solid waste, water, and atmospheric quality on viral infectivity. ⋯ Solid waste generated by households with infected individuals during the lockdown period may facilitate the spread of COVID-19 via fomite transmission route but has received little attention from the scientific community. Water bodies receiving raw sewage may pose risk of infection but this has not been investigated to date. Overall, our understanding of the environmental perspective of SARS-CoV-2 is imperative to detecting outbreak and predicting pandemic severity, allowing us to be equipped with the right tools to curb any future pandemic.
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Sci. Total Environ. · Nov 2020
Repercussions of COVID-19 pandemic on municipal solid waste management: Challenges and opportunities.
The COVID-19 pandemic has caused global emergency and has raised social and economic concerns which will also spill over to environmental issues. Amid this natural experiment, current study evaluates prevailing municipal solid waste (MSW) management practices, with the emphasis on MSW treatment and disposal facilities in select developed and developing countries. The data and information used in this paper is collected from several scientific research papers from different disciplines, publications from governments and multilateral agencies and media reports. ⋯ Discussion includes identifying parameters of disease transmission through solid waste handling, consequences of medical waste surge on current municipal waste treatment and disposal systems. Further, based on previous pandemic and disaster waste management studies, this study also presents challenges and opportunities in the aftermath of the ongoing pandemic. The paper recommends alternatives approaches for MSW treatment and disposal and outlines the future scope of work to achieve sustainable waste management during and aftermath of the pandemics.