Genomic monitoring of SARS-CoV-2 variants using sentinel SARI hospital surveillance.

ABSTRACT:

Background

To support the COVID-19 pandemic response, many countries, including Belgium, implemented baseline genomic surveillance (BGS) programs aiming to early detect and characterize new SARS-CoV-2 variants. In parallel, Belgium maintained a sentinel network of six hospitals that samples patients with severe acute respiratory infections (SARI) and integrated SARS-CoV-2 detection within a broader range of respiratory pathogens. We evaluate the ability of the SARI surveillance to monitor general trends and early signals of viral genetic evolution of SARS-CoV-2 and compare it with the BGS as a reference model.

Methods

Nine-hundred twenty-five SARS-CoV-2 positive samples from patients fulfilling the Belgian SARI definition between January 2020 and December 2022 were sequenced

SUBMITTER: Denayer S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10570899 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature