Details
Three years into the COVID-19 pandemic, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has spawned several variants of concern 1 . The successive subvariant named Delta had a >3-fold increased risk of mortality 2 . The still-evolving Omicron lineage of SARS-CoV-2 has higher rates of human transmission and antibody evasion. These subvariants have caused – and are expected to continue to cause – case and hospitalization surges. Existing monoclonal antibody therapies may not be as effective or even recommended for each variant 3 .
This evolving threat – and the data analysis needed to prevent future surges – presents a challenge to both healthcare practitioners and pharmaceutical/vaccine manufacturers.
Testing, treatment, and vaccination programs may be improved with insights from regularly updated laboratory data – including data on genomic testing.
In this project, the Sentinel System assesses which SARS-CoV-2 genomic laboratory tests are being conducted by the Sentinel System Data Partners and the availability of the corresponding results that may be utilized for ad hoc analyses related to COVID-19.
Contributors
Christine Halbig, MPH; Department of Population Medicine, Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA
Patricia Bright, PhD, MSPH; Office of Surveillance and Epidemiology, Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, Food and Drug Administration, Silver Spring, MD
Ashish Rai, PhD, MSPH, MBBS; Tawil Diaz; Alexander Mai; Katherine Farineau; Department of Population Medicine, Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA