Early warning of statewide COVID-19 Omicron wave by sentineled urbanized sewer network monitoring using digital PCR in a province capital city of Gandhinagar, India

Wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE), has been implemented globally. However, there remains confusion about the number and frequency of samples to be collected; as well as which types of treatment systems can provide reliable specific details about the virus prevalence in specific areas or communities, enabling prompt management and intervention measures. More research is necessary to fully comprehend the possibility of deploying sentinel locations in sewer networks in larger geographic areas. The present study introduces the first report on wastewater-based surveillance in Gandhinagar City using digital PCR (d-PCR) as a SARS-Cov-2 quantification tool, which describes the viral load from five pumping stations in Gandhinagar from October 2021 to March 2022. Raw wastewater samples (n = 119) were received and analyzed weekly to detect SARS-CoV-2 RNA, 109 of which were positive for N1 or N2 genes. The monthly variation analysis in viral genome copies depicted the highest concentrations in January 2022, and February 2022 (p