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

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.