Gradual Recovery of Building Plumbing-Associated Microbial Communities after Extended Periods of Altered Water Demand during the COVID-19 Pandemic.

ABSTRACT: COVID-19 pandemic-related building restrictions heightened drinking water microbiological safety concerns post-reopening due to the unprecedented nature of commercial building closures. Starting with phased reopening (i.e., June 2020), we sampled drinking water for 6 months from three commercial buildings with reduced water usage and four occupied residential households. Samples were analyzed using flow cytometry and full-length 16S rRNA gene sequencing along with comprehensive water chemistry characterization. Prolonged building closures resulted in 10-fold higher microbial cell counts in the commercial buildings [(2.95 ± 3.67) × 10⁵ cells mL^-1] than in residential households [(1.11 ± 0.58) × 10⁴ cells mL^-1] with majority intact cells. While flu

SUBMITTER: Vosloo S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9969676 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature