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: Cuypers, Lize
Dellicour, Simon
Hong, Samuel S.L.
Potter, Barney
Verhasselt, Bruno
Vereecke, Nick
Lambrechts, Laurens
Durkin, Keith
Bours, Vincent
Klamer, Sofieke
Bayon-Vicente, Guillaume
Vael, Carl
Ariën, Kevin
De Mendonça, Ricardo
Soetens, Oriane
Michel, Charlotte
Bearzatto, Bertrand
Naesens, Reinout
Gras, Jeremie
Vankeerberghen, Anne
Matheeussen, Veerle
Martens, Geert Antoine
Obbels, Dagmar
Lemmens, Ann
Van den Poel, Bea
Van Even, Ellen
De Rauw, Klara
Waumans, Luc
Reynders, Marijke
Degosserie, Jonathan
André, Emmanuel
Maes, Piet
Baele, Guy
Dokumenttyp: Artikel
Erscheinungsdatum: 2022
Schlagwörter: Pathologie maladies infectieuses / Sciences pharmaceutiques / Belgium / COVID-19 / genomic surveillance / next-generation sequencing / SARS-CoV-2 / variants of concern
Sprache: Englisch
Permalink: https://search.fid-benelux.de/Record/base-28957794
Datenquelle: BASE; Originalkatalog
Powered By: BASE
Link(s) : http://hdl.handle.net/2013/ULB-DIPOT:oai:dipot.ulb.ac.be:2013/372100

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. ; SCOPUS: re.j ; info:eu-repo/semantics/published