Table 3.

Occurrence of Coronavirus of interest for human health in water environments.

Reference	Virus	Water matrix	Country	Year	Main findings
Wang et al., 2005b	Severe acute respiratory syndrome Coronavirus (SARS-CoV)	Sewage water from two hospitals receiving SARS patients	Beijing, China	2003	•SARS-CoV RNA was found in the sewage before disinfection from both hospitals, and from one hospital after disinfection •No infectious SARS-CoV was detected in the hospital sewage either before or after disinfection
		Benchmark Stools (n = 11) from symptomatic patients in the two hospitals			•SARS-CoV RNA detected in 7/11 samples •No infectious virus in any the stool samples
Blanco et al. (2019)	Alphacoronavirus Betacoronavirus	Surface water (water channels)	Central Saudi Arabia	2015	•One sample out of 21 was positive for Coronavirus by broad-range semi-nested RT-PCR The detected virus belonged to lineage A of Alphacoronavirus and was related to a rodent clade
		Benchmark Hepatitis A virus			•Eight samples out of 21 were positive for Hepatitis A virus by real-time RT-qPCR
Bibby et al. (2011)	Human coronavirus 229E a Human coronavirus HKU1 a	Class B biosolids from wastewater treatment facility b	USA	unk	•Nine Human coronavirus 229E and one Human coronavirus HKU1 sequences were detected •Coronavirus represented the second most abundant group of human pathogenic viruses in biosolid samples after Parechovirus
		Benchmark virome			•Detected viruses included both environmentally transmitted pathogens (Parechovirus, Coronavirus, Adenovirus and Aichi virus), and viruses associated with chronic human infections (Herpesvirus and Hepatitis C virus)
Bibby& Peccia (2013)	Human Coronavirus HKU1 a Human coronavirus 229E a	Influent and effluent sludge c	USA	unk	•Coronavirus were detected in 83% of samples •Coronavirus HKU1 was the second most prevalent RNA virus •Coronavirus showed a higher relative abundance in influent samples compared to effluent ones
		Benchmark virome			•43 (26 DNA, 17 RNA) different types of human viruses were identified in sewage sludge •The most abundant potential viral human pathogen belonged to the family Herpesvirus Viral pathogens identification included type strains of (DNA viruses) Papillomavirus, Adenovirus, Bocavirus, Parvovirus, and Torque Teno Virus and (RNA viruses) Coronavirus, Cosavirus, Klassevirus, Rotavirus, Hepatitis C virus, Parechovirus, Sapovirus, Astrovirus, Coxsackievirus, Rhinovirus, T-lymphotropic virus, Human Immunodeficiency virus, Aichi virus, and Rubella virus
Alexyuk et al. (2017)	Coronaviridae a	Surface water (river, water reservoir, lake)	Ile-Balkhash, Kazakhstan	2017	•Coronaviridae represented the 0.002–0.009% of total viral reads, depending on sample
		Benchmark virome			•37 families of viruses (including dsDNA, ssDNA, ssRNA viruses) were identified •Sequences mainly referred to dsDNA viruses, mostly bacteriophages (Myoviridae, Siphoviridae and Podoviridae) •Other detected viruses included families as Poxviridae (0.588–0.660%), Herpesviridae (0.084–0.136%), Adenoviridae (0.009–0.011%), Coronaviridae (0.002–0.009%), Reoviridae (0–0.016%), and Picornaviridae (0–0.002%)

Note: For comparison purposes, other microorganisms detected in the studies were reported under ‘benchmark’.

^aMetagenomic study.

^bSolid residuals by primary sedimentation and secondary activated sludge clarification, treated by mesophilic anaerobic digestion, and partially dewatered by belt pressing.

^cInfluent and effluent sludge from mesophilic anaerobic digesters from domestic wastewater treatment plants. Influent samples were mixtures of primary and secondary sludge; effluent samples were of a class B product, prior to dewatering.