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BRIEF RESEARCH REPORT article

Front. Public Health
Sec. Infectious Diseases: Epidemiology and Prevention
Volume 12 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2024.1462629

Wastewater surveillance for SARS-CoV-2 during a mass sporting event in the City of Cape Town, Western Cape

Provisionally accepted
Sizwe Nkambule Sizwe Nkambule 1,2*Renee Street Renee Street 1,2Swastika Surujlal-Naicker Swastika Surujlal-Naicker 3Prof Rabia Johnson Prof Rabia Johnson 4,5Angela Mathee Angela Mathee 1,2
  • 1 Environment and Health Research Unit, South African Medical Research Council, Johannesburg, South Africa
  • 2 Department of Environmental Health, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg, South Africa
  • 3 Scientific Services, Cape Town, South Africa
  • 4 Biomedical Research and Innovation Platform, South African Medical Research Council, Cape Town, South Africa
  • 5 Centre for Cardio-Metabolic Research in Africa, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Stellenbosch University, Cape Town, South Africa

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Background: Wastewater surveillance has become an important public health tool with numerous research studies indicating its potential for monitoring coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreaks. The aim of this study was to apply wastewater surveillance as an indicator for COVID-19 to monitor the impact of a mass sporting event in the City of Cape Town. The study compared the same event over two years (2022 and 2023). Methods: Weekly grab wastewater samples were collected from wastewater treatment plants in the City of Cape Town, and quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction used to quantify severe acute respiratory syndrome 2 (SARS-CoV-2) RNA in wastewater. Results: Our findings show a statistically significant correlation (rho=0.68, p=0.01) between clinical cases and concentrations of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in wastewater in the 2022 study period. During this specific period, a rise in clinical cases was observed two weeks after the event and the peaks in clinical cases coincided with the peaks in SARS-CoV-2 RNA level in wastewater. The study also found a statistically significant positive correlation (R2=.03, F(1,208)=6.56, p=.01) between the SARS-CoV-2 RNA in wastewater and the 2022 event of the marathon hosted in the city. Conclusion: Due to the decrease in clinical testing and the country being a popular destination for mass gatherings such as sporting events, the results from this study indicate the potential of wastewater surveillance providing supplementary information to form part of public health risk evaluations for mass gatherings.

    Keywords: Mass gatherings, COVID-19, wastewater, surveillance, Public Health, Sporting event

    Received: 10 Jul 2024; Accepted: 25 Nov 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Nkambule, Street, Surujlal-Naicker, Johnson and Mathee. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Sizwe Nkambule, Environment and Health Research Unit, South African Medical Research Council, Johannesburg, South Africa

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.