Wastewater surveillance of open drains for mapping the trajectory and succession of SARS-CoV-2 lineages in 23 cities of Maharashtra state (India) during June 2022 to May 2023.

The timely detection of SARS-CoV-2 is crucial for controlling its spread, especially in areas vulnerable to outbreaks. However, due to a lack of sustainable and low cost methods, early detection of such outbreaks is impacting low to middle-income countries (LMICs). Leveraging Wastewater-Based Epidemiology (WBE), we examined the dissemination and evolution of the SARS CoV2 virus in open drains across urban, suburban and densely populated cities in selected regions in the state of Maharashtra, the third largest state of India.