IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v21y2024i9p1259-d1483627.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Wastewater-Based Surveillance Reveals the Effectiveness of the First COVID-19 Vaccination Campaigns in Assisted Living Facilities

Author

Listed:
  • Katherine I. Brenner

    (Samueli School of Engineering, University of California, Irvine, CA 92617, USA)

  • Bryan Walser

    (Pangolin LLC, 260 Southhampton Ave., Berkeley, CA 94707, USA)

  • Joseph Cooper

    (Pangolin LLC, 260 Southhampton Ave., Berkeley, CA 94707, USA)

  • Sunny Jiang

    (Samueli School of Engineering, University of California, Irvine, CA 92617, USA)

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has disproportionately affected vulnerable populations, including residents of assisted living facilities (ALFs). This study investigates the impact of non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) and mass vaccination campaigns on SARS-CoV-2 transmission dynamics within four ALFs in Maricopa County, Arizona, United States from January to April 2021. Initial observations reveal a significant SARS-CoV-2 prevalence in Maricopa County, with 7452 new COVID-19 cases reported on 4 January 2021. Wastewater surveillance indicates elevated viral loads within ALFs with peak concentrations reaching 1.35 × 10 7 genome copies/L at Facility 1 and 4.68 × 10 5 copies/L at Facility 2. The implementation of NPIs, including isolation protocols, resulted in a rapid decline in viral loads in wastewater. Following mass vaccination campaigns, viral loads reduced across all facilities, except Facility 4. Facility 1 demonstrated a mean viral load decrease from 1.65 × 10 6 copies/L to 1.04 × 10 3 copies/L post-vaccination, with a statistically significant U-statistic of 28.0 ( p -value = 0.0027). Similar trends are observed in Facilities 2 and 3, albeit with varying degrees of statistical significance. In conclusion, this study provides evidence supporting the role of NPIs and vaccination campaigns in controlling SARS-CoV-2 transmission within ALFs.

Suggested Citation

  • Katherine I. Brenner & Bryan Walser & Joseph Cooper & Sunny Jiang, 2024. "Wastewater-Based Surveillance Reveals the Effectiveness of the First COVID-19 Vaccination Campaigns in Assisted Living Facilities," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 21(9), pages 1-12, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:21:y:2024:i:9:p:1259-:d:1483627
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/21/9/1259/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/21/9/1259/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Sasha Harris-Lovett & Kara L. Nelson & Paloma Beamer & Heather N. Bischel & Aaron Bivins & Andrea Bruder & Caitlyn Butler & Todd D. Camenisch & Susan K. De Long & Smruthi Karthikeyan & David A. Larsen, 2021. "Wastewater Surveillance for SARS-CoV-2 on College Campuses: Initial Efforts, Lessons Learned, and Research Needs," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(9), pages 1-20, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Mitchell D. Ramuta & Christina M. Newman & Savannah F. Brakefield & Miranda R. Stauss & Roger W. Wiseman & Amanda Kita-Yarbro & Eli J. O’Connor & Neeti Dahal & Ailam Lim & Keith P. Poulsen & Nasia Saf, 2022. "SARS-CoV-2 and other respiratory pathogens are detected in continuous air samples from congregate settings," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-14, December.
    2. Jeffrey L. Ram & William Shuster & Lance Gable & Carrie L. Turner & James Hartrick & Adrian A. Vasquez & Nicholas W. West & Azadeh Bahmani & Randy E. David, 2023. "Wastewater Monitoring for Infectious Disease: Intentional Relationships between Academia, the Private Sector, and Local Health Departments for Public Health Preparedness," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(17), pages 1-21, August.
    3. Alex Godinez & Dustin Hill & Bryan Dandaraw & Hyatt Green & Pruthvi Kilaru & Frank Middleton & Sythong Run & Brittany L. Kmush & David A. Larsen, 2022. "High Sensitivity and Specificity of Dormitory-Level Wastewater Surveillance for COVID-19 during Fall Semester 2020 at Syracuse University, New York," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(8), pages 1-13, April.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:21:y:2024:i:9:p:1259-:d:1483627. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.