Coronavirus: scientists say more genomic surveillance is needed to detect new variants sooner

Just 2 per cent of global Covid-19 cases have been sequenced, according to a study by researchers in China and Britain

They say limited tracking in low-income countries may cause delays in finding new strains, which is key to pandemic control

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Researchers have called for more effective and coordinated genomic surveillance of Sars-CoV-2 and other emerging viruses to contain this and future pandemics. Photo: EPA-EFE

Published: 12:05am, 9 Dec 2021Updated: 12:30am, 9 Dec 2021

The world could be slow to detect new coronavirus variants given that just 2 per cent of global Covid-19 cases have been sequenced. That is according to an analysis by researchers in China and Britain, who called for more effective and coordinated global virus surveillance.

In their study, published in the journal Nature on Wednesday, the team said “limited genomic surveillance [of the coronavirus] in many low-income countries may cause delays in identifying variants”. They said identifying strains was key to pandemic control and sheds light on their transmissibility, infectivity and disease severity.

“The virus has entered a new evolutionary phase characterised by the frequent emergence and spread of variants that affect immune escape and reduce the efficacy of vaccines,” the researchers said.

“It is likely that there are additional new variants that have not yet been detected, given the limited genomic surveillance in a number of regions,” they said, though they noted the coronavirus had prompted by far the largest project undertaken to sequence pathogen genomes.

The researchers said Britain and the United States had generated around half of the 2.8 million complete genomes as of August, while countries that have seen major outbreaks, such as India and Brazil, had sequenced a much smaller number of cases.