Raw sewage collected from the outflow of buildings, or the influent flow of sewage treatment works, is dispensed into multiwell plates containing Nanotrap® magnetic virus particles (Ceres Nano) and loaded into the KingFisher Flex liquid handling robot (Thermo Scientific), wherein viral RNA is concentrated and extracted. Aliquots of the RNA are then mixed with PCR reagents and SARS-CoV-2–specific primers by the epMotion 5075 liquid handling robot (Eppendorf) before amplification.

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