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

Katherine I. Brenner, Bryan Walser, Joseph Cooper and Sunny Jiang ()
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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

IJERPH, 2024, vol. 21, issue 9, 1-12

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.

Keywords: wastewater epidemiology; SARS-CoV-2; vaccine effectiveness; non-pharmaceutical interventions; assisted living facility (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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