Less attention paid to waterborne SARS-CoV-2 spreading in Beijing urban communities

Highlights

• A survey on individual’s perception of SARS-CoV-2 transmission was conducted.

• Waterborne transmission risks are far less perceived by individuals.

• Precautions of preventing wastewater mediated transmission are implemented.

• The precautions for wastewater transmission are less favored by the public.

• Education level differs the most regarding to waterborne transmission perception.

Abstract

SARS-CoV-2 has been detected in various environmental media. Community and individual-engaged precautions are recommended to stop or slow environmentally-mediated transmission. To better understand the individual’s awareness of and precaution to environmental dissemination of SARS-CoV-2, an online survey was conducted in Beijing during March 14–25, 2020. It is found that the waterborne (especially wastewater mediated) spreading routes are far less perceived by urban communities. The precautions for wastewater transmission are less favored by the public than airborne and solid waste mediated spreading routes. Such risk communication asymmetry in waterborne transmission will be further enlarged in places with fragile water system. Furthermore, education level is the most significant attribution (Sig.<0.05) that causes the difference of awareness and precautions of the waterborne transmission among the respondents, according to the variance analysis results. Our survey results emphasize the urgent need for evidence-based, multifactorial precautions for current and future outbreaks of COVID-19.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

Environmental dissemination / Risk communication / Individual perception

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank Prof. Xia Huang for valuable suggestions during the manuscript preparation. This research is funded by Chinese Academy of Engineering (Mechanism of the Spread of the Covid-19 in Environments and Cross-media Risk Control, 2020-ZD-15).

Electronic Supplementary Material

Supplementary material is available in the online version of this article at https://doi.org/10.1007/s11783-021-1398-2 and is accessible for authorized users.

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