During the study period, the authors of the pre-print say there were nearly 450 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the area served by the water treatment facility, but the latest results suggest that this figure could be an underestimate, although more research is needed to verify this. While the team currently lack the data to provide an accurate figure for the number of people infected in the area, they estimate that it could be anywhere between 2,300 and 115,000—far higher than the official figure in both cases.