{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,20]],"date-time":"2026-07-20T06:03:44Z","timestamp":1784527424018,"version":"3.55.0"},"reference-count":41,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,20]],"date-time":"2026-07-20T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1784505600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Public Health"],"abstract":"<jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Objective<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>This study analyzed SARS-CoV-2 surveillance results in the urban wastewater of Zhengzhou, central China, to explore its association with community COVID-19 incidence and evaluate its early warning performance across different SARS-CoV-2 variant epidemic phases.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Methods<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>Weekly monitoring was conducted at five representative wastewater treatment plants from May 2024 to July 2025, yielding 325 samples. Viral loads of the ORF1ab and N genes were quantified using RT-qPCR, with statistical analyses performed included Spearman correlation, ANOVA, and cross-correlation function.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Results<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>The two target genes showed high consistency and significant positive correlation with 14-day cumulative COVID-19 incidence. However, significant variant and marked heterogeneity was observed across variant periods and gene targets, with the N gene outperforming ORF1ab in stability. Wastewater viral signals preceded clinical cases by one week.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Conclusion<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>These findings supported the application value of wastewater-based epidemiology in post-pandemic COVID-19 surveillance, indicate its potential early warning capacity, and reveal notable heterogeneity in surveillance performance across viral variants and target genes.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.3389\/fpubh.2026.1875582","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,20]],"date-time":"2026-07-20T05:35:32Z","timestamp":1784525732000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["SARS-CoV-2 wastewater surveillance in a central Chinese metropolis: variant responses and correlation with clinical cases"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"14","author":[{"given":"Xinye","family":"Zhang","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Environmental Health Section, Henan Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention","place":["Zhengzhou, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Jie","family":"Zhang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Environmental Health Section, Henan Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention","place":["Zhengzhou, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Qiuyan","family":"Zhao","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Environmental Health Section, Henan Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention","place":["Zhengzhou, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Xiaoyan","family":"Ma","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Environmental Health Section, Henan Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention","place":["Zhengzhou, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Lingshuang","family":"Lv","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute of Environmental Health and Infection Control, Hunan Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention","place":["Changsha, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Hongxia","family":"Ma","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Infectious Disease Prevention and Control Institute, Henan Provincial Key Laboratory of Infectious Disease Pathogens, Henan Province Center for Disease Control and Prevention","place":["Zhengzhou, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Shufang","family":"Zhang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Environmental Health Section, Henan Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention","place":["Zhengzhou, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Zhiwei","family":"Han","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Environmental Health Section, Henan Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention","place":["Zhengzhou, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1965","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,20]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"4548","DOI":"10.1038\/s41467-023-40305-x","article-title":"Wastewater-based epidemiology predicts COVID-19-induced weekly new hospital admissions in over 150 USA counties","volume":"14","author":"Li","year":"2023","journal-title":"Nat Commun"},{"key":"ref2","volume-title":"COVID-19 dashboard","year":"2025"},{"key":"ref3","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"226","DOI":"10.1007\/s00059-023-05183-5","article-title":"The COVID-19 pandemic in China: from dynamic zero-COVID to current 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