The Impact of SARS-CoV-2 Genomic Surveillance Locally, Nationally, and Globally

Date:  May 5, 2021

Time: 8:00am PDT, 11:00am EDT, 5:00pm CET

Emergence of genetic mutations within the SARS-CoV-2 genome that may enhance transmissibility, increase symptom severity or improve the virus’s ability to evade immunity produced by current vaccines, have raised concerns around the world.   Learn from two colleagues that have pivoted lab efforts to enable SARS-CoV-2 mutation surveillance at a local and national level.

Testing and Surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 Variants to Enable Safe Return to On-campus Learning

In March of 2020, like other Universities, Northeastern University (Boston, MA) moved all instruction online and shortly there after closed campus down.  Almost immediately after the University started to plan for its reopening in Fall of 2022.  In this presentation, we will briefly look at Northeastern Universities response to COVID-19 through testing as well as the importance of genomic surveillance as the number of variants reported increases.   

SARS CoV-2 testing and sequencing for international arrivals reveals significant cross border transmission of high risk variants into the United Kingdom

Mandatory Day 2 and Day 8 PCR testing of international arrivals has been recently introduced by the UK Government to mitigate against the cross-border transmission of high risk SARS-CoV-2 variants. All positive Day 2 samples with cycle threshold (Ct) values of <30 (defined as equivalent to ~10,000-1,000 viral genome copies/ml) must undergo genomic sequencing. Oncologica is a participant in this testing program and utilizes a novel integrated test and sequence workflow to detect and identify variants. Here we have conducted a retrospective analysis of SARS-CoV-2 test data to determine the prevalence and variant type entering the UK.

Learning Objectives:

• Learn how academic and public health laboratories are implementing SARS-CoV-2 genome sequencing for surveillance and tracking of variants within localized populations
• Be introduced to contributions toward regional and national genomic surveillance efforts by private laboratories
• Gain an understanding of the importance in having a strong national surveillance program in parallel with a robust network of local and regional labs to enable rapid, public health response to outbreaks.

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