Description: The Water Professionals Guide to COVID-19
Based on the sharp increase in number of COVID-19 infections, on Jan. 30, 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the current outbreak to be a public health emergency of international concern.
PublisherWater Environment Federation
Word count147
Description: The Water Professionals Guide to COVID-19
The virus, technically named SARS-CoV-2, is a newly identified virus strain, but it is the seventh coronavirus known to infect humans. The resulting illness is referred to as COVID-19. This virus is in the same coronavirus family as severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV or SARS) and Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV or MERS), which caused the two previous...
PublisherWater Environment Federation
Word count995
Description: The Water Professionals Guide to COVID-19
While many questions remain regarding transmission of COVID-19, most often coronaviruses spread from person-to-person during close contact — about 2 m (6 ft). Person-to-person spread is thought to mainly occur via respiratory droplets produced when an infected person coughs or sneezes, similar to how influenza and other respiratory pathogens spread. These droplets can land in the mouths or...
PublisherWater Environment Federation
Word count351
Description: The Water Professionals Guide to COVID-19
A recent report from the China CDC suggests that COVID-19 may be transmitted through the fecal-oral route (Zhang et al., 2020). Scientists detected the virus RNA in patient stool after scientists noticed that only 3% of patients infected with the COVID-19 virus experienced diarrhea in the early stages of infection, with cough, fever, and shortness of breath being the...
PublisherWater Environment Federation
Word count918
Description: The Water Professionals Guide to COVID-19
Disinfection systems at water resource recovery facilities (WRRFs) and the associated regulatory requirements were developed to be protective of a broad spectrum of potential pathogens. The recent coronavirus serves as another example of the importance of this infrastructure for protecting public health.
PublisherWater Environment Federation
Word count397
Description: The Water Professionals Guide to COVID-19
Wastewater treatment and collection system workers are commonly exposed to untreated wastewater that contains disease-causing organisms that could result in an infection. While the risk of infection may increase during some outbreaks (Haas et al, 2017), thus requiring additional protective measures for...
PublisherWater Environment Federation
Word count286
Description: The Water Professionals Guide to COVID-19
For contaminated surfaces to play a role in transmission, respiratory pathogens must be shed into the environment, survive on the surface, be transferred to hands or other objects at concentrations high enough to cause infection (i.e., at an infectious dose) and be transferred to the mouth, nose, or eyes at an infectious dose. Transmission can be interrupted at any of these steps....
PublisherWater Environment Federation
Word count728
Description: The Water Professionals Guide to COVID-19
Bibby, Kyle et al. “Persistence of Ebola Virus in Sterilized Wastewater.” Environmental Science & Technology Letters 2.9 (2015): 245-249. https://pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/acs.estlett.5b00193
PublisherWater Environment Federation
Word count448
The Water Professionals Guide to COVID-19