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
Lize Cuypers, Simon Dellicour, Samuel L. Hong, Barney Potter, Bruno Verhasselt, Nick Vereecke, Laurens Lambrechts, Keith Durkin, Vincent Bours, Sofieke Klamer, Guillaume Bayon-Vicente, Carl Vael, Kevin K. Ariën, Ricardo De Mendonça, Oriane Soetens, Charlotte Michel, Bertrand Bearzatto, Reinout Naesens, Jérémie Gras, Anne Vankeerberghen, Veerle Matheeussen, Geert A. 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
Abstract
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.