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medrxiv

unib SARS-CoV-2 detected in waste waters in Barcelona on March 12, 2019 26/06/2020 Recerca COVID-19 was announced in Wuhan (China) in early December in 2019 and it would reach every place worldwide later, including Europe. The first case in Europe was announced in France in late January 2020. This chronology on the evolution of the disease can change according to a study led by the University of Barcelona, in collaboration with Aigües de Barcelona. Researchers detected the presence of the virus that caused the disease in samples of waste water in Barcelona, collected in March 12, 2019. These results, sent to a high impact journal and published in the archive medRxiv, suggest the infection was present before knowing about any case of COVID-19 in any part of the world. This study, which counts on the participation of the researchers of theGroup on Enteric Virus of the UB Gemma Chavarria Miró, Eduard Anfruns Estrada and Susana Guix, led by Rosa Maria Pintó and Albert Bosch, is part of the project on sentinel surveillance of SARS-CoV-2. This initiative is coordinated by this research group, in collaboration with Aigües de Barcelona and funded by the REVEAL project, from the company SUEZ, in order to detect the virus in waste waters and adopt immediate measures considering future COVID-19 outbreaks.

medrxiv Sentinel surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater anticipates the occurrence of COVID-19 cases SARS-CoV-2 was detected in Barcelona sewage long before the declaration of the first COVID-19 case, indicating that the infection was present in the population before the first imported case was reported. Sentinel surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater would enable adoption of immediate measures in the event of future COVID-19 waves.