Two Years of Genomic Surveillance in Belgium during the SARS-CoV-2 Pandemic to Attain Country-Wide Coverage and Monitor the Introduction and Spread of Emerging Variants

An adequate SARS-CoV-2 genomic surveillance strategy has proven to be essential for countries to obtain a thorough understanding of the variants and lineages being imported and successfully established within their borders. During 2020, genomic surveillance in Belgium was not structurally implemented but performed by individual research laboratories that had to acquire the necessary funds themselves to perform this important task. At the start of 2021, a nationwide genomic surveillance consortium was established in Belgium to markedly increase the country’s genomic sequencing efforts (both in... Mehr ...

Verfasser: Lize Cuypers
Simon Dellicour
Samuel L. Hong
Barney I. Potter
Bruno Verhasselt
Nick Vereecke
Laurens Lambrechts
Keith Durkin
Vincent Bours
Sofieke Klamer
Guillaume Bayon-Vicente
Carl Vael
Kevin K. Ariën
Ricardo De Mendonca
Oriane Soetens
Charlotte Michel
Bertrand Bearzatto
Reinout Naesens
Jeremie Gras
Anne Vankeerberghen
Veerle Matheeussen
Geert Martens
Dagmar Obbels
Ann Lemmens
Bea Van den Poel
Ellen Van Even
Klara De Rauw
Luc Waumans
Marijke Reynders
Jonathan Degosserie
Piet Maes
Emmanuel André
Guy Baele
Dokumenttyp: Text
Erscheinungsdatum: 2022
Verlag/Hrsg.: Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute
Schlagwörter: SARS-CoV-2 / COVID-19 / Belgium / genomic surveillance / next-generation sequencing / variants of concern
Sprache: Englisch
Permalink: https://search.fid-benelux.de/Record/base-26590409
Datenquelle: BASE; Originalkatalog
Powered By: BASE
Link(s) : https://doi.org/10.3390/v14102301

An adequate SARS-CoV-2 genomic surveillance strategy has proven to be essential for countries to obtain a thorough understanding of the variants and lineages being imported and successfully established within their borders. During 2020, genomic surveillance in Belgium was not structurally implemented but performed by individual research laboratories that had to acquire the necessary funds themselves to perform this important task. At the start of 2021, a nationwide genomic surveillance consortium was established in Belgium to markedly increase the country’s genomic sequencing efforts (both in terms of intensity and representativeness), to perform quality control among participating laboratories, and to enable coordination and collaboration of research projects and publications. We here discuss the genomic surveillance efforts in Belgium before and after the establishment of its genomic sequencing consortium, provide an overview of the specifics of the consortium, and explore more details regarding the scientific studies that have been published as a result of the increased number of Belgian SARS-CoV-2 genomes that have become available.